


Bangronpa

by KaedeWrites



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Gen, Out of Character, Panic Attacks, Rated For Violence, aya is protag, yea probably very ooc lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-09-26 15:55:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 30,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17144711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaedeWrites/pseuds/KaedeWrites
Summary: Welcome, welcome, one and all, back to the 10th season of Danganronpa! We have a very special season in store for you all: twenty-five unique students, two neighboring schools, a protag who struggles with her own self-confidence, and plot twists of unbelievable caliber! We all hope you'll join us in the showing of Anniversary Danganronpa 10: Birth of Despair.Monokuma misses you.





	1. PROLOGUE

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! I hope you enjoy this story!!! If you would like to keep up with all the latest updates and help develop the story further, @bangronpa on Instagram is entirely devoted to everything related to this story!
> 
> Have fun~

Ah, Hope's Peak Girls’ Academy. The school where all your hopes and dreams become a reality. You’d be lucky to get in there, and- actually. No. ‘Lucky’ isn’t the right word. The students of Hope’s Peak are anything _but_ lucky: they’re hard-workers, devoting their entire lives to their talents. They’re nothing but truly gifted students, and with how much effort they devote to themselves, they deserve to be in Hope’s Peak. Nothing lucky to it at all.

...Well, besides me, I guess.

As I stand in front of the towering school, I reflect upon my own ‘talent.’ The Ultimate Lucky Student… what a stupid title. I mean, no shade to the talent-picker or whatever they’re called, but really? Luck?

I guess I should explain what that means for me. I was selected the ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’ because my name had been randomly drawn. Literally, randomly selected, out of all the names in the country- or, it might’ve even been the _world_ -out of a lottery. I mean, yeah. That’s probably pretty damn lucky, but hardly worth giving a whole talent and invitation to the school to. I can’t help but feel unworthy, and feel bad about the fact that I may very likely be taking someone’s spot in the school.

But… at the same time… a part of me is also so grateful. I can’t help it! I admit, it does give a boost to my ego to know that I’d been scouted for such a prestigious school, but it’s not like I’m a narcissist or anything! I mean, it’s completely normal to do an ego-search on yourself after being scouted to see if other people maybe, might have _possibly_ started talking about you… right?

So, you’re probably wondering… who is this person? Who is this ‘lucky student’ talking to you right now? Oh- and I’m not just saying that to give an excuse to talk about myself! Introductions are always important.

My name is Aya Maruyama. I’m a 1st year in high school now, and… well, really, there’s nothing special to me. I’m a perfectly average high school girl, from head to toe. My hair, my face, my sense of fashion- I’m the definition of “normal,” through and through. My hair is mid-length, and, well, pink, but even so I still look average. I usually wear a simple dress, which most certainly does _not_ help me to stand in anymore. I do happen to be in a band, yeah, but it’s just a silly little band between me and some of my close friends. I’m certainly nothing special, especially compared to the other students enrolled.

...Speaking of the other students, my mind can’t help but wander to the others I read about on the Hope’s Peak roster. The Ultimate Super Model, the Ultimate Dancer, the Ultimate Athlete… I can’t believe I’ll be going to the same school as the people given these talents. I can’t believe they’re the same age as me, that they’ve already accomplished so much, while all I can say for myself is that I’m _lucky_. It’s almost embarrassing.

However, as I suddenly realize, now isn’t the time to dwell on that. I look around at the school again, staring up at the tall building. This is it. This is the moment of my life that will change me forever. The beginning of my future, and the start of my story.

I breathe in, trying to be confident, and whether it helped or not I’m unsure, just stepping in through the doors as fast as I could. I took my first step into the school, as well as my first step into a new school life. At least… that’s what I was expecting.

Before I could react to my surroundings, before I could do anything at all, the world began to warp and distort around me, sending me into a daze. It almost feels as if I’m on a strong drug. (Not that I know what that’s really like, though!) My vision twists, turns, blending together and fading away until, quickly enough, everything goes black.

Well... I sure was right about one thing. This is the moment of my life that will change me forever.

* * *

 

“...Hrmph?” when I come to, I lift my head up. The surface I’m on is hard, and cold, and my mouth is noticeably _dry_ but my arm and lower lip is wet. My eyes open slowly as my daze washes away. I notice a few things as my conscious returns: firstly, I’m sitting in an upright position. I’m sitting at a desk and my head was buried in my arms while I slept. Secondly, I had drooled. My arm is coated with a line of saliva and my drool is still running down my chin, and my mouth is void of all moisture. I wipe it away. And thirdly, I’m in a classroom of some sorts. I don’t know where, but it’s a class. Albeit, a… very _strange_ classroom, but a classroom nonetheless.

“Wh- ...wha-?” is all I can croak. My voice cracks and I clear my throat, closing my mouth to regain some wetness back on my tongue. I sit up straighter to take a look around me. There’s a window in this classroom, light streaming in through the glass, and I can tell I’m on ground-level. Across the plane stands another building that towers high. It looks like a school, almost, except for the fact that the outside colors have very monotonous, dark tones- blacks, purples, blues -just a whole mesh of emo colors. I wonder if the outside of this building looks the same. “Where am I…?”

I decide to stand up, but- _too fast_! I get lightheaded, my knees go weak, and I almost topple over. I grab onto the side of the desk, though, thankfully managing to maintain my balance. Then something grabs my interest: a piece of paper, sat crumpled on the face of the desk one over from the one I sat at.

“Is anyone here?” I ask as loud as I can. My throat is still a tad hoarse and dry, but I can hear it strengthening.

After a few moments of no response, I look back at the crumpled paper. Maybe it’ll have some information on it…? Yeah, it definitely could! I grab it quickly, uncrumpling it just as fast as I’d grabbed it, but… nothing. Disappointment settles in my bones. That is, until I finally notice the faint scribbling showing through from the other side. I flip it over. Sketches of a bear and random scribbles cover the page, but the part that captures my attention most is the words written neatly in the middle of the paper.

_Welcome to Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy!_

_The new semester is about to begin._

_When you wake up, please find your way to the gymnasium._

_Enjoy your permanent new school life._

I read over the note again. Multiple times, really, that I read over the note, but each time it just leads me to be more confused than the last. Reading the note helps me remember where I am, though: Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy. I almost completely forgot! That must be the class I’m in now, right? A Hope’s Peak class? If that’s true…

“These classrooms are a lot weirder than I expected,” I speak out loud.

I think back to the note. Welcome to Hope’s Peak, new semester, assemble in the gym… the only part I truly don’t understand is the last line. _Enjoy your permanent new school life._ What the hell is that supposed to mean? _Permanent_ new school life? I feel like it’s supposed to be some kind of joke that didn’t land, but the eerie uncertainty of it still concerns me.

Deciding to not stress too much over it for now, I follow the instructions. _Please find your way to the gymnasium._ Great. So… how am I supposed to do that?

Sighing, I leave the class through the only door in the room. I notice immediately that the hallway is almost as weird as the classroom.

“Jeez… this place just gets weirder and weirder,” I say to myself.

“I know, right?” a voice cuts in behind me. I jump about 50 feet in the air and do a 180 to see the mysterious offender. “Oh, sorry!” she apologizes, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

The girl who now stands in my line of vision is gorgeous. Her silky, blonde hair reaches a ways down her back. Her soft, purple eyes bore into me as she stares me down. Her clothes are simple, but cute, light, and fashionable. She’s utterly beautiful, and something about her seems familiar to me.

“My name is Chisato Shirasagi,” she introduces, and does a tiny bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m the Ultimate Actress.”

I look upon her with wistful eyes. “Wow…!” I whisper. “So, like, have you done a bunch of movies and stuff?”

“Oh, yes, tons! I’ve played a lot of parts in superhero movies, actually, like I played Wonder Woman, I played a part in The Greatest Showman, Let’s Go, JETS! And-”

“Holy cow! So, you’ve been in movies worldwide, too!? You must be, like, legendary! No wonder you look so familiar! How do you do it!?”

Chisato giggled. “Well, I’m fluent in many languages. My parents have worked to make me fluent since I was born!”

“Wow!” I beam again. “You’re super amazing! It’s a shame, though… I kind of can’t remember you playing any of those parts…” I ponder. “Or, any of the other actors. Or… the plots of any of them either… To be honest, I can’t remember anything right now,” I nervously laugh.

“Oh, you too?”

“Uh… what do you mean, ‘me too?’”

She sighs. “The others and I have all experienced some extreme memory loss as well. To tell you the truth, I can’t really remember the plots of my own movies, either: just that I was in them and the roles I played.”

“Oh…” I drift. I wasn’t sure what to say. I was glad I wasn’t alone with this, but I also felt bad for her, and… the others? “Wait, did you say ‘others?’”

“Oh, yes!” she smiles. “There are others waiting in the gymnasium. You saw a note by your desk, right?” I nod. “Well, actually, the reason I’m here and not in the gym is because I decided to come look for anyone else. Which is you,” she smiles again.

“Well, thank goodness! I had no idea where I was going. C-Could you, uh, please lead the way?” I ask.

“Of course!” she beams. She briskly walks past me, and it took me longer than it should have to realize she wanted me to follow her.

As she leads the way, I look around at the hallway. There are more classrooms we pass, other rooms that I don’t know the purpose of, and we pass some windows to the outside world. It’s a sunny day, as sunlight beams in through the panes. It’s beautiful outside. There’s grass and flowers and cherry blossom trees, and in the corner of my eye I can see the mysterious dark building.

“By the way,” Chisato suddenly speaks up, “I never got to know your name.”

“Oh!” I exclaim, feeling foolish. “My name is Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student. It’s nice to meet you!” I grin. Chisato looks at me from behind her shoulder and simply smiles.

“That’s a cute name,” she says. I blush, trying to find something to say, but instead Chisato interrupts; “here’s the gym.”

I look at the double doors we stand in front of. A large plate that says ‘gymnasium’ is placed above the wooden doors, and I look to Chisato.

“So… everyone else is in here?” I ask. She nods.

“Yes. Well, at least, from what we all know of.”

I nod. Breathing in, I push forward one of the doors. I almost expected to pass out again like I did when I first entered Hope’s Peak, but instead, I’m greeted with 12 new faces, their eyes all boring into me. I nervously giggle.

“Uh, um… hi.”

A silence falls in the room between me and the others. I take the opportunity to dissect everyone’s face. Everyone is so unique in their clothes and appearances, and they all had completely separate auras flowing from each of them. However, they all hold a similar expression: annoyance and fear. Well… for the most part. There’s a blonde in the corner smiling with a redhead, but everyone else seems to be taking the situation gravely serious.

“U-Uh, hi,” I try to speak up again, but have to clear my throat when my voice cracks. “My name’s Aya Maruyama. Uh…” I’m completely dumbfounded on what to say. “Sorry I seem to be late? A lot of things happened, but- well, I mean, Chisato was telling me that you all have some, uh, memory loss? And-”

“Is this just a long, diluted way to tell us ‘hey, I lost my memory too?’” a blonde girl with pigtails, quite rudely, I may add, replies.

“Oh… um. Yeah.”

“Wow, strange!” a girl with white braids said.

“Quite strange!” the redhead said.

“Incredibly strange!” the blonde next to her said, with an English accent apparently?

“Ignore those idiots,” a blue-eyed brunette told me. “So, you too?”

I sighed. “Yes, unfortunately… but I can’t lie, it’s honestly a bit nice to know I’m not alone.”

“I get what you mean,” the same girl says. “Just really sucks that I can’t remember anything, though… Nothing besides my talent, name, and the moments right before entering Hope’s Peak.”

“It’s the same way for me!” I say. Whew, at least I’m not the only one. “Hey, when you wake up, did you wake up sitting at a desk, too?”

Not just her, but everyone nods too, giving little affirmations such as ‘yes’ and ‘yeah.’ It’s creepy how eerily similar all of our situations are.

“This is so peculiar…” the white-braided girl says, with a frown.

I hear some sniffles. I look to a girl with pastel blue hair, as she has her face buried into her hands. “I-I want to go home,” she cries. This seems to trigger another girl, one with short, black hair, who begins to cry as well.

“Guys, guys!” the cheerful blonde chimes in, and I notice the sudden lack of an English accent. “It’s not the time to cry! I’m sure whatever is happening is just some kind of funny first day ceremony!” she giggles, and the redhead nods.

“Oh, funny, huh? A first day ceremony, yeah? Definitely, because giving us amnesia is _definitely_ something they’re both capable of and willing to do,” the same brunette replied again. The blonde with pigtails snickered.

“Hey! You don’t have to be so rude!” the redhead says. “She was only trying to stay positive!”

“I-Is positivity really what we need right now…?” another girl with long, black hair asks. “O-Our lives could be in d-d-” her eyes begin to well with tears, “- _danger_!”

“Suck it up, crybabies,” another girl with blue hair says. “There’s no room to cry and no room to be rude. We need to figure out what’s going on as soon as possible.”

“I have an idea!” a brunette with strange hair announces. “We should all go around and introduce ourselves!”

“Seriously?” a green-eyed, brunette girl asks. “Introductions? Right now?”

“Actually, I think it’s a good idea,” Chisato says. “We should at least get to know each other before we try to bite off the bigger problem. It might help us to unwind the stress. And, besides… how do we talk to each other if we don’t even know each other’s name?

“You have a point…” says the girl with blue hair who had been crying.

“Okay! So, introductions, then we can deal with the bigger problem. Sound good?” asks the girl who proposed the idea in the first place. Everyone nods, some reluctantly, but people turn to talk to each other. “Great!” she says, and turns to the girl with short, black hair.

As everyone starts up conversations, I look around for someone not talking. I see Chisato had walked over the the pastel blue haired girl, so I observe the area to see anyone alone.

Soon enough, I spot the girl with longer black hair that had been crying earlier, who was sitting on the bleachers alone. I guess this is as good a time as any to meet someone new. I can also ask if she’s doing okay.

“Hey,” I greet as I approach. I can see her visibly jump, and I back off a bit. “Woah, hey! It’s okay!”

“Ah! S-Sorry,” she shyfully says, “I just get nervous a lot, I-I’m really shy, and… kind of have social anxiety…”

I sit down next to her, putting my hand gently on her shoulder. She jumps a tad, but not as much as she did when I first approached. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to do anything. What’s your name?”

She smiles. “Um, th-thanks. I’m, uh, Rinko Shirokane. I’m th-the Ultimate Seamstress… I guess…”

At her words, I did a once-over of her clothes. I noticed her sense of style was cute, almost elegant, a bit conservative, kind of gothic, and overall looked very high-quality. Did she…? “Did you make your own clothes?”

“Oh! Um, y-yeah, all of the clothes I wear were made by, uh, me…”

“Seriously!? Oh my god, the quality is amazing! You must really be the Ultimate Seamstress, huh? Do you design it all too!?”

Her smile is bright and genuine. “Th-thank you. Um, yeah! I design all the clothes too… actually I-I do everything on my own. Design, sewing, it’s all me.”

“Wait, seriously? You don’t even have, like, a production team or anything!? That’s so amazing!”

She nods, with a blush. “Ahah, well, thank you… honestly, I’ve been doing it for so long, i-it doesn’t even seem like anything to me anymore… eheh…”

“Well, really, it is amazing! How do you even do it?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been sewing for as long as I can remember. On a good day, I can get a dress sewn in maybe… 15 minutes? Sometimes less. On an off day, it could take me up to an hour.”

“Oh my god. Seriously, oh my god!” I exclaim, eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. “Are you kidding? 15 minutes? Is that even possible!?”

“Ah, well… I’m probably being a bit generous…! I’m not really accounting for the time it takes to buy the fabric, cut the fabric, you know, do all that stuff… and the time taken varies from piece to piece...”

“Rinko!” I shout. She jumps, but I don’t falter. “Don’t you _dare_ undermine your talent right now!” my hand returns to her shoulder, and I grip on tight. “You sound like such an amazing seamstress, I’m jealous! I wish I could have a talent like yours!”

She smiles another one of those beautiful, genuine smiles. “Thank you… your name is Aya, right? What’s your ultimate talent?”

“Oh, yes! I’m, uh, the… the Ultimate Lucky Student. Basically, my name was randomly selected from a lottery. They picked ‘one ordinary student’ to attend Hope’s Peak, and apparently, that was me. Lame, I know.”

Rinko shines. “That sounds amazing! You really do sound like a real lucky gal,” she sighs.

I can’t help but blush, and I smile. “Thank you. You’re such a lovely person, I can’t wait to get to know you even more,” I say. She smiles, and I can tell her whole demeanor has changed since we first started talking. She seems more confident. I stand up, but before I leave, I turn back to say one more thing. “Oh, by the way… I noticed you stopped stuttering,” I teased, giving a wink.

She blushes. “Um, I-I- well...yeah? Th-thanks? I-I mean, th-that’s not the right thing to s-say shoot…”

All I can do is giggle, as I turn back around to find someone else to talk to. Rinko seems happier than she did before. I look around for a moment, my eyes finally lying down on the girl with long, blue hair, and I walk to her.

“Hello!” I greet.

“Oh. Hello,” she huffs. She… doesn’t seem very friendly.

“I’m Aya Maruyama. What’s your name?”

“Right… I caught that earlier. I’m Sayo Hikawa, the Ultimate Archer.”

I consider that for a moment. She definitely _does_ seem like the type, from her serious attitude to her muscular figure. It’d be hard to _not_ see her as an archer.

“Oh, cool! Like Katniss Everdeen?” I ask, and it’s only until it’s out of my mouth that I realize how dumb it sounds. I watch her eyes as they narrow.

“...Who? I’ve never heard of her.”

“Ahah, um… I guess I shouldn’t expect you to know her. She’s from an American book series called The Hunger Games, she’s basically just, like, this really great archer, and-”

“I’m probably better than her.”

“Oh! Um, I mean… probably! I’ve never seen your skill, but since you’ve even been scouted for Hope’s Peak, I’m sure you must be great! Plus Katniss is just fictional anyways, either way you’re definitely better! But, um, I’d love to see your archery sometime? Really, you must be great!”

...I should probably mention, I ramble when I get nervous.

However, Sayo insists on staying silent, no matter how much I talk and push. I sigh, walking away from her, deciding it’s probably best if I go talk to someone else.

I scan the room again. My eyes settle on the energetic blonde girl from earlier.

“Hello!” she greets before me with a smile

“Hi,” I smile back.

“I’m Kokoro Tsurumaki!” she beams. “I’m the Ultimate Dancer. Let’s have fun together!”

I mull over her talent. Looking her up and down, you can _definitely_ see she has the body for it. She’s crazy thin, so it must be hard to contain all the energy she musters inside that tiny body of hers. I wonder what kind of dancing she does, but considering her personality, I can’t imagine it being anything elegant. I smile back at her.

“Hello, Kokoro. I’m Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.”

“Oh! Ultimate Lucky Student, huh? What does that mean?”

“Oh, well, basically my name got drawn from this lottery or whatever- the letter said something along the lines of ‘we’re accepting one ordinary student into our school this year,’ and- heh -I guess that’s me.”

“What the heck!? That’s incredible!” she says. I can almost see her eyes gleaming.

“Ahah, yeah, I guess? Definitely not as amazing as your talent, though! Ultimate Dancer, huh?”

“No! Don’t just undermine your talent like that!” she says, ignoring what I said about her own talent. She says to me basically what I said to Rinko, which is… funny to me, for some reason. “That’s really amazing! I mean, being the chosen one out of the whole country- maybe even the _world_? You deserve to be here! That’s amazing, you must be really lucky!”

“A-Ahahah! Well… th-thank you? That’s kind. So-”

“You’re welcome!” she boasts. Suddenly, I’m being pulled, and I realize my hands are in her own. She pulls me to a less crowded spot in the gym, and then we’re _dancing_ together. Her head is on my shoulder as she sways me, and I can feel my blood pressure skyrocket. In a hushed tone, she says: “I think you’re amazing. You should feel proud of yourself.”

My ego swells a tad at the affirmations. As Kokoro leads me in a dance through the gym, I begin to think that I might’ve been wrong about the details of her talent, since she frustratingly didn’t let me talk about her and instead wanted to talk about me.

Talk about me… the thought made my heart stutter. I’ve never before experienced the feeling of someone actually wanting to talk about _me._ Usually people just see me as a normal, average high school girl, which is true, but these people seem to view me different. They view me as someone more, someone that _deserves_ to to be here. The realization makes me feel like I’m flying- or… maybe that’s because Kokoro is currently swinging me around in the air.

Before I really know what’s happening, Kokoro was tossing me around and dancing around me. Oh. So I was right about her talent.

“Oh- ah! -my god! Wha- eek! Wh-what are you doing!?”

“Dancing!” she giggles, flying around me. “It’s my talent, afterall!”

Her dancing is chaotic, energetic, but I can see why she was given the title of the Ultimate Dancer. She’s all over the place, yet she’s composed and knows exactly what she’s doing. Her moves are sharp and timely, all connecting together to make a solid dance routine as she occasionally moves to throw me around. Which, surprises me, because she’s so skinny that I’m astonished she has the muscle power for that. I look around at the other students and I can see a few eyes on us. The most apparent are the redhead’s, whose eyes glitter with gleam, and the grumpy brunette, who looks upon Kokoro with an emotion I can’t decipher.

“You must really like dancing, huh?”

She stops in front of me for a moment, just breathing heavily. She looks deep into my eyes. “It’s my whole life.”

At that, I simply smile, and decide it’s time to talk to someone else as the redhead comes forward to dance with Kokoro. I look to the same brunette from before and walk up to her.

“Hey,” I say. She looks up from where her eyes are glued to Kokoro and the redhead.

“Oh, hi,” she says. Her eyes move back to Kokoro.

“Are… you okay?” I ask. She nods.

“I’m fine. It’s just… those two look really familiar to me.”

“Hm. I kinda get what you mean. Chisato looked really familiar to me, but that’s probably because of her talent… though, there’s something about _everyone_ here that’s a little familiar to me.”

“Chisato… who’s that?”

“Oh!” I exclaim, and subtly point to Chisato. She’s over talking to Rinko. “The girl over there with the long, blonde hair. She’s the Ultimate Actress,” I say, and look over the the brunette. I see her eyes narrow.

“Yeah… she looks a bit familiar to me, too.”

I provide a smile. “Ahah, yeah… it’s really strange. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Misaki. Misaki Okusawa,” she says, and puts a hand out for me to shake. I grab it graciously.

“Hi Misaki, I’m Aya Maruyama. What’s your ultimate talent?”

“Eheh, well, I’m the… the Ultimate DJ.”

 _That_ surprises me. With her personality, I expected her talent to be something more serious. She’s also ripped, too, so I would’ve thought her ultimate is something more athletic. Though, I suppose I don’t know what goes into being a DJ, so it could very well be something you need to be in good shape for. But, really, a _DJ_? I have to ask about that.

“So, what about you? What’s your talent?”

“Oh- I’m the Ultimate Lucky student. Basically I my name got randomly drawn from a lottery, so now I get to attend Hope’s Peak, blah blah blah…” I realize I’ve been having to explain my talent a lot more times than I thought I would.

“Oh. Cool,” she simply says.

“Actually, I kinda wanted to ask you about your talent! How did you get your talent?”

“Uh… well, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t exactly remember ‘how’ I got my talent, just that I have it. I mean, if you asked me to use some DJ decks right now, I could probably make some pretty sick beats. I… I _think_ I like it?” she shrugs.

“You _think_ you like it?”

She shrugs again. “You never know. There’s always the possibility I’m just naturally talented with my ultimate, not that I actually like it.”

I think on that for a moment. I guess it makes sense, like how there’s always those people at school who are really good at a subject but don’t actually like it. I suppose you could also see my _own_ talent in the same light: I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student, but I don’t _like_ that I am. It’s an interesting perspective I never thought of.

Finally, I say my goodbyes to Misaki, and move on to go talk to another person. My eyes land on the sassy blonde with pigtails and I move to her.

“Hello!” I greet as friendly as possible. She looks on me with disapproving eyes.

“Hi…” she grumpily says. I can feel the hostility in her glare.

“U-Um, My name is Aya Maruyama! I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student. Uh, what’s your name?”

“...Arisa Ichigaya. Ultimate Keyboardist.”

The Ultimate Keyboardist… I can definitely see that. She looks gentle and delicate, (quite the opposite of her actual personality) so I can imagine her being that way with the keys.

“Keyboardist? That’s awesome! So-”

“Look. I’m sorry, but I’m not really in the mood to talk. Could you, like, go away?”

I falter a bit. I wasn’t ready for such a harsh response. “Oh. Um, yeah. Sorry…”

I turn away, defeated, and try to find someone new. I decide to go talk to the girl with white braids.

“Hello!” I greet as I walk closer. I stay a bit cautious, preparing myself for possible rejection like I had with Arisa. She immediately smiles and waves, though, so I feel a bit better.

“Hello!” she greets back. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Aya Maruyama, the Ultimate Lucky Student. It’s a pleasure to meet you. What’s your name?”

“I am Eve Wakamiya! I’m the Ultimate Samurai! I believe passionately in the bushido code!”

That was another one that surprised me. Eve struck me as a gentle and tender person, plus she was so friendly and polite, I absolutely could not see her fighting and killing in the heat of battle. Though, I can also tell that she had quite defined muscles, so I guess it’s not _completely_ hard to see. What’s with all these girls and their toned muscles!?

“Bushi… do?”

“Oh, yes!” she says with gleaming eyes. “It’s the code of honor for samurai! I dictate my entire life on it,” she sighs.

I still didn’t understand any better. “Oh. Well, that’s pretty cool! So have you, like, been in wars?”

Her mood suddenly turns glum. “Yes… I’ve killed many. Samurai don’t exist any longer, but since a young age I’ve always been fascinated by them. I trained and trained to learn the way of the samurai, and managed to become a samurai myself. The Japanese military was impressed, and though the art of the samurai was dead, I’d managed to revive it again,” she smiled to herself. “The samurai division of the military had started up again, and I was the head of it. I was proud of myself for being able to resuscitate the way of the samurai, but…” I could feel a dark aura coming off of her. “A part of me also regrets it. The war, the blood, the killing… if I was never into the art of samurai, I wouldn’t be involved in the bloodshed now. I would’ve been a normal teenager. But…” she trails off. Her eyes are downcast, and I feel bad for bringing up the subject.

“I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I think that’s super impressive, though, way more impressive than my talent.”

And then, just as fast as she’d been put down, she bounces back up. “Oh, you said you’re the Ultimate Lucky Student, right? What does that mean?”

“Oh!” I should’ve seen that question coming. “It basically means that my name got randomly pulled from this lottery because they were accepting ‘one completely average student’ into Hope’s Peak. So… y’know…”

“Wow!” she says, and I can tell the excitement in her voice is genuine, yet I still have a hard time believing it after the story she just told. “That’s really impressive! Just think about how many people live in this country- or even the _world_ if it was a worldwide lottery! That’s really crazy!”

I was beginning to get very used to people telling me exactly this. “Eheh, yeah, I guess, sort of… not nearly as impressive as some of the other people in this room, though.”

“Oh, please,” she huffs, throwing her hand around in the air. “I only revived the samurai division of the military. You-” she cuts herself off abruptly, likely realizing midway how ridiculous it sounds. “Erm… well, I mean, it’s still impressive!”

I roll my eyes amusedly. “Yeah- okay, Eve.”

I say goodbye to Eve, and I walk away to talk to another person. I scan the room. I’ve talked to about half the people here, so the choices are dwindling down. I lock eyes with the girl with the short, black hair who had _also_ been crying earlier, and I approach her.

“Hi,” I say to her.

“Hello,” she offers, shyly, with a smile.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Rimi Ushigome. I’m the Ultimate Bassist! It’s nice to meet you.”

The Ultimate Bassist… I can, potentially, see it. She doesn’t seem like the type of person to play an instrument like that, but the idea doesn’t totally boggle me.

“Hey, y’know, it’s funny that you mention that, earlier a girl told me that she was the Ultimate Keyboardist, so-”

“Oh, you mean Arisa, right?”

“Oh! Have you already met her?”

“Yeah! Actually, Arisa isn’t the only one here who plays an instrument. There’s also an Ultimate Guitarist, Ultimate Drummer, and an Ultimate Vocalist.”

Woah. “Woah, really? Hah! That’s so crazy, you guys should just form a band!” I say, and Rimi gives me a smile, but I can tell it’s bittersweet. There’s something else going on. “Hey… are you alright?”

She nods. “I’m fine. It just… feels like there’s more to this situation. I don’t know, all of these girls seem… _really_ familiar to me.”

“You know, you’re not the first one who’s said that. I’ve been saying that too, and so has Misaki.” I point a finger to Misaki, who’s talking to Kokoro.

“Really!? Oh, thank goodness,” she sighs. “Hey… your name is Aya, right?”

“Yep! Aya Maruyama!”

She smiles, sticking her hand out to me. I shake it. “It’s nice to meet you,” she says. I smile back.

“Hey, where are those other musicians you were talking about?”

Suddenly, a pair of hands are touching my sides. They move, and I begin to cackle, because... well, I’m _really_ damn ticklish. I squirm under the touch and I can feel people start to stare at me, but I can’t control myself. I’m about to fall down to my knees when the same pair of hands moves under my armpits and lifts me up.

“We’re right here,” the mystery person says, and while I’m recovering I turn around the best I can to see a pair of green eyes.

“Tae, let her go…” another girl says, a brunette with blue eyes and a ponytail.

She obeys the command, letting me go, and I can finally fully turn around to see the musicians well. I wipe away the tears at my eyes. “C’mon, I was just having fun!” Tae says.

“Um-” my voice cracks, and I clear my throat, “-who are you guys?”

The girl with the ponytail sighs. “I’m Saaya Yamabuki. I’m sorry for _her_ behavior,” she says. Said mentioned girl frowns.

“I told you, I was just messing around!” she huffs. “But, I’m Tae Hanazono. Ultimate Guitarist.”

“Oh, right-” Saaya says, “-I’m the Ultimate Drummer.”

“And I’m Kasumi Toyama, the Ultimate Vocalist!” the girl to the side bursts, as if she’s been waiting this entire time to say that.

“And…” another voice speaks up. Arisa. “I know we’ve already met,” she mutters.

“Oh, wow…” is all I can say as I take all their personalities in.

Saaya Yamabuki, the Ultimate Drummer. Saaya didn’t seem like the type of person to be a drummer. When I imagine a drummer, I imagine someone hardcore and super punk, which Saaya isn’t at all. But, at the same time, there’s something to Saaya that also makes it easy to see her as a drummer. She has this power to her that I feel is unique to all drummers, a strong aura to her.

Then there’s Tae Hanazono, the Ultimate Guitarist. I have no problems as seeing her as a guitarist, being totally honest. She gives off exactly the right vibes. She has this mix of masculinity and femininity to her that makes it seem like if she were to play any instrument, it’s guitar. Her fingers, I notice, are also quite long. Good strumming fingers. And then I mentally slap myself for making that observation.

And Kasumi Toyama, the Ultimate Vocalist… that’s the most believable one of all. Kasumi Toyama carries a confident, optimistic energy to her, even if she’s not speaking. All she has to do is be in the room and you can tell she’s there. Her voice when she’s just _talking_ is smooth and melodious, so I can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful her voice sounds when she’s singing.

“Your name is Aya, right?” Kasumi asks. I nod. Suddenly, my hand has been taken, as Kasumi grips it and shakes it up and down. She smiles. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she says, and I can feel the genuineness flowing from her words. I smile back.

“It’s so nice to meet you too.”

I move away from the group of five musicians and I look at my options left. I notice Misaki talking to the girl with blue hair who’d been crying earlier, and I head over to them.

“Hey, guys!”

“Hey,” Misaki says.

“Ah, hello!” the blue-haired girl says. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Aya Maruyama,” I smile. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.”

“Oh, Aya, right! You already said your name earlier… stupid me,” she sighs.

“Hey, it’s okay! What’s your name?”

“Ah, Kanon Matsubara… I’m the Ultimate Marine Biologist… it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Kanon is a very cute girl. She seems very gentle, and I could easily imagine her gushing over sea life. The thought is… very cute, actually, and I can’t help but feel my heart stutter when the image comes to mind.

“Marine biologist…” I repeat with wonder.

“Yes! I really love all sea life, but… well, jellyfish are my favorite! They’re so calming to watch, I always relax whenever I see a jellyfish in aquariums. They’re just-” she sighs, “-so cute. I love to study them. And-” she starts, but cuts herself off abruptly. A blush crawls over her face. “Ah- I’m so sorry! I’m talking about myself too much, um, you said you’re the Ultimate Lucky Student? What does that mean?”

I groan internally. “Trust me, I’d rather talk about your talent than mine. But, basically, my name got randomly drawn from a lottery because they’re accepting ‘one lucky ordinary student into Hope’s Peak this year,’ blah blah blah…”

“Funny,” Misaki speaks up, “she said the exact same thing to me. Blahs and all.”

I blush a bit. “W-Well, there’s not really much to my talent, honestly!”

Kanon giggles. “It’s okay, I totally get it. There’s not really a _ton_ to my talent either, so-”

“Kokoron!” a voice calls throughout the gym. I look over to the source: the redhead. The one person I haven’t met. “Has anyone seen Kokoro!?”

“No… last I saw her was when she was dancing with you,” Misaki says beside me. The redhead frowns.

“Will anyone come looking for her with me!?” she asks. For a few moments, no one says anything, before I step forward.

“I’ll come with you.”

She brightens. “Thank you so much!” she says. Then, she’s running over to me, grabbing my hand, and leading me out through the gym’s double doors.

For awhile, we’re silent as we walk through the halls. The redhead, who’s name I _still_ don’t know, had let go of my hand as soon as we got through the doors. I settle for just trailing behind her as she frantically looks around the halls and checks from room to room. Though she doesn’t seem like this type of person, I don’t want to say anything in fear that she might shut me down.

As we walk down the corridors, I continue to notice just how _weird_ this school is. In some halls there are windows to the outside world, and I can see a field as far as the eye can see. Which is… strange. Isn’t Hope’s Peak in the middle of a populated city? Why is there so much land? The only signs of another building anywhere in sight is the slight glimpses of the other school I can see through the glass.

The actual halls themselves are very monotonous. There’s barely any colors, just blacks, grays, and whites. The floor is checkered black and white, and the walls are shades of grays. Most of the doors are a solid black, except for a few weird-looking doors that stand out in stark contrast to the color scheme of the rest of the school. It’s quite strange… don’t most schools have more vibrant colors in the halls? I feel like having a school environment like this would drag me down a lot. The only hints of some color are a very select few of the doors, the colors through the windows, and the people walking through the halls.

Another thing I should mention about the colorful doors: most of them have symbols or designs of some sort, and they all have nameplates to the side. So far we’d passed a dark blue door with a design of a bow and arrow that said Sayo’s name on the plate, and a wooden brown door that has two swords and Japanese letters engraved into the wood. The nameplate says Eve Wakamiya.

“Hey, I’m sorry for being so rude!” Hagumi suddenly says next to me. I look to her. “I didn’t even ask your name! Pft- stupid. What _is_ your name?”

I smile warmly. “Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student. What’s your name?”

The redhead is checking inside another classroom. “Hagumi Kitazawa! I’m the Ultimate Athlete. I love to run and play!”

“The Ultimate Athlete, huh? So what sports do you play?”

“Oh! Many: softball, basketball, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, track, football, swimming, water polo, volleyball, hockey-” she stopped, taking in a deep breath, “-surfing, baseball, lacrosse, dodgeball, skiing, golfing, kickball, karate, dance, diving, cycling, and… well, lots more! But I don’t wanna bore you.”

My eyes sparkle. “Seriously? You play _all_ those sports? And more!?”

She giggles. “Well, it’s not that I play all those sports on a regular basis, more that I’ve played each of those sports before. My favorite is softball, though,” she sighs. “There’s nothing quite like it.” She goes to another door and checks inside.

“You sound very passionate about sports,” I smile.  
“What about you?” she asks. “Ultimate Lucky Student? What’s that mean?”

This time, I outwardly sigh. “It, just… _basically_ means that my name got pulled from a lottery, because they chose one ‘ordinary student’ to attend their school, yadda yadda.”

“Oh, wow, that’s cool! You must be real lucky then!”

I smile. “Yeah, I guess so…”

“Oh, hey!” she shouts, as we near the end of the hall we’re walking in. “That room has Kokoron’s name on the plate! Maybe she’s in there!”

The door we approached was a bright yellow, with designs of even lighter lace around the frames. In the middle there was a symbol of ballet shoes, and I notice that the door is sparkly and glitters in the light. And, indeed, the plate mounted next to the door is engraved with Kokoro’s full name.

“Well… it’s definitely worth a shot. We’ve been in just about every other room in this school,” I laugh. She nods at me, and we both walk to go through the door.

When Hagumi opens the door, immediately a blast of music sounds out from the room. It’s some kind of pop song I don’t recognize, and in the middle of the room Kokoro is passionately dancing to it.

The room itself is set up like some kind of dance studio: the floor is wooden, the walls are mirrored, and ballet barres are everywhere. There’s a radio on a stand to the corner of the room, which I’m assuming is connected to the speakers mounted in the top corners. Next to the radio is also a shelf jam-packed with CD’s and DVD’s, and I hadn’t noticed before, but there’s a large flat screen TV mounted in the middle of the far back wall. In the corner of the right wall, near the radio, there’s also a door.

Then, my eyes come to Kokoro. I only now notice that she’d completely stripped of her original clothing, and she’s now wearing a black leotard, white tights, ballet slippers, and a pink tutu. Where she got these new clothes, and what happened to her old ones? I had no idea.

“Kokoron!” Hagumi exclaimed, running up to Kokoro. Kokoro smiled, and jumped into her arms for a hug. “Oh, Kokoron! I was so worried about you!”

Kokoro giggles. “Worried about me? But I’m fine!”

“W-Well,” Hagumi stutters, “I know, but… in our current situation, I was just worried…”

Kokoro laughs again, and hugs Hagumi a little bit tighter. “It’s okay! It’s not like I was gonna get _murdered_ or anything. I’m just dancing!”

After a few more seconds, Kokoro and Hagumi let each other go from their tight hug, and Kokoro looks over to me. “Oh: Aya, hi!” she says. I smile back, and walk in a few steps.

“Hello, Kokoro.”

“So… um, what is this place, Kokoron?”

“Oh! Um, honestly, I don’t know?” she tells us. She walks over to the radio, quickly shutting off the music. “But, actually… when I first discovered it, a nice bear showed up and explained to me that this is my Ultimate Research Lab!”

“What!?” Hagumi asks, a mix of excitement and shock.

“Kokoro, what!? Are you feeling okay!?”

“Yes! Okay- I know you’re not gonna believe me, but I swear, it happened!”

“I- okay, Kokoro,” I sigh, “I believe you. Could you just explain in full length?”

“Of course!” she says. Then she sits on the floor, because apparently this is a story you need to sit down for, and Hagumi sits too. I decide to just go with it, sitting down as well, and we all form a circle on the floor of Kokoro’s dance studio.

“Okay, so, basically, I left the gym just to go use the bathroom, right? But then I got a bit lost and decided just to wander the halls for a bit, and _then_ I found this room, and it had my name on the plate! And I was like, woah, that’s pretty cool, so I just went in. I was a little confused, but then, out of _literally_ nowhere, this bear shows up! Not an actual bear, but like, this stuffed animal robot bear? And she explains to me what this room is. She said, like, ‘this is your Ultimate Research Lab! We here at Hope’s Peak want to hone your talents as much as possible, so we set up these rooms for you! This is your lab, the Ultimate Dancer’s lab, but we set up labs for the other Ultimates too, of course,’ blah blah blah…” she recites. Then, she dramatically lays down, and sighs a lovey sigh. “I thought it was really nice.”

“Ultimate Research Lab…” Hagumi repeats.

“Wait, I still can’t get over the bear thing!” I exclaim. “What did it look like!?”

“Well… she was pink, but her tummy was white, and so was her snout. Her eyes were big, and- oh! She had sparkles in her eyes!” Kokoro giggled. “She was adorable.”

“So… you said she was a stuffed animal robot bear?” Hagumi asks.

“Yeah! Like, she was a stuffed animal, but she also talked and moved? It’s… a little hard to explain. Aw, it’s a shame, I didn’t get to know her name, either…”

I mull over this information for a moment. So, first of all, everyone has an ‘Ultimate Research Lab.’ That must mean that those other rooms we pass are Ultimate Research Labs, too… Eve’s and Sayo’s. Does that mean I have an Ultimate Research Lab too? Where is it? I have so many questions all spinning around in my head, not even to mention the stuffed bear, and yet there’s only one question I can think of and word out.

“Kokoro, what happened to your clothes?”

“Oh!” she says, surprised. “They’re in there.”

My eyes follow to where she points to the door on the right wall. “What’s in there?” I ask.

“Oh, you _have_ to see for yourself!” Kokoro smiles. She stands up again, and runs over to the door. She disappears inside the room before Hagumi and I even have a chance to stand up.

“Well,” I groan, stretching my limbs as I stand. “I guess we have no choice but to follow.”

Hagumi nods beside me, seeming a lot more excited than I am. We make our way over to the door. I reach for the handle, and when I open the door, I’m a lot more surprised than I probably should be. (Considering I’m standing in full-on dance studio right now.) Inside the room are shelves and clothing racks as far as the eye can see. Hanging on the closet rods are various costumes and outfits fit for dance genres of all kinds. There are leotards and tights, ballet slippers, tap shoes, crop tops, booty shorts, tutus, and actual formal dancing dresses. I notice everything is sorted into genres of dance, and furthermore into types of clothing. It was a crazy walk-in closet, and in the middle of some of the racks and shelves were makeup booths lined from edge to edge jam packed with makeup and utensils.

I step in, but accidentally kick something on ground. I look down, and there at my feet, is the tiny (in comparison) puddle of Kokoro’s original clothing: her short overalls, and red and white striped t-shirt.

“This is crazy…” I say, taking in the room.

“I know, right?” Kokoro giggles. “It’s pretty awesome! I can’t believe I have it all to myself! I have a walk-in closet like this at home, but definitely not _this_ big! Though, my studio is much bigger…”

“Wait a minute. You have a studio, at your house, _and_ a walk in closet?”

“Well, yeah, actually, I have two walk-in closets: one in my studio, another off the side of my room. The one off my room is probably about this size. But I love my walk-in closet in my studio! I wonder how they knew that…” she says, touching one of the frilly dresses hung up.

“Kokoron, look!” Hagumi shouts before I can say another word. I look over to her and, there she stands, in all her glory, wearing a tutu with exaggerated frills and lace. The grin on her face is monumental.

“Oh, Hagumi!” Kokoro smiles. “You look so lovely!” she says.

She reaches for the strap of her leotard and I can tell she’s about to change into another outfit, before I blush and quickly interject: “um, guys!” with a voice crack. I blush even harder, and clear my throat. “Don’t you think we should be heading back soon? I don’t want the others to start getting worried… we all _are_ also supposed to be assembled in the gym anyways…”

“Oh, yeah!” Kokoro says. “I should probably change into my original clothes, though…”

And, just like that, Kokoro and Hagumi begin change back into their clothes right in front of me. My mind stops, I’m frozen, and I can do nothing but stand in place with my mouth agape. Surprisingly, Kokoro and Hagumi don’t even _say_ anything, and continue to change in front of me and each other as if it’s the most normal and natural thing in the world!

“Alright, let’s get going!” Kokoro says. I blink out of my trance to see Kokoro and Hagumi looking at me, completely redressed.

I don’t know what to say. So, wordlessly, I open the door to the closet, and lead us out. Luckily for us all, it didn’t take very long to find our way back to the gym. Most of the way there consisted of Kokoro and Hagumi giggling about various things, and me leading the way, a strong blush still on my face with no words. When we arrived at the gym, Hagumi found it necessary to burst back inside.

“We’re back! And we found Kokoron!”

The gym is silent as they turn their heads to us.

“...It’s about time,” Arisa mutters. I’m starting to get a nice feel for Arisa’s personality.

We all walk to the middle of the gym. The room surrounding is deathly quiet.

“So, what now?” Misaki says. And there it is: the grave question. What do we do now? Now that we’ve got our silly introductions finished, what are you supposed to do in our current situation? What is there to do? I try to think of something quick and reassuring to say.

“Well, I think we should-”

Before I can utter another word, I’m cut off by a loud noise erupting behind me. We all turn around, and we see a large screen buzzing down from the ceiling. When it stops, it’s almost touching from the floor to the ceiling, and almost from wall to wall. The thing is crazy large, _unnecessarily_ large, and I’m not even sure how it had managed to be hidden within the ceiling, and how it manages to stay hanging with only the wires supporting it up. We all turn silent again.

“...What the-”

The lights go out. I hear a few screams, and suddenly I’m disoriented, unable to see a thing. It’s probably worthy to mention that the gym has absolutely _no_ windows, so the room is utterly pitch black. People around me are screaming, mumbling, scuffling around, either trying to fix this situation _somehow_ or resorting to complete panic mode. It’s a few seconds of utter chaos, until the screen turns on. At first, it’s only static, and white noise fills our ears. I can still hear a few people whimpering over the static, but most have quieted down and tuned into the screen, and those who are still vocalizing are mostly drowned out by the deafening noise.

The deafening noise.

The white noise.

The static.

The noise.

The-

The screen turns black. But only for a second, for as soon as the light went out, it came back on with the image of a bear on the screen. It looks clearly like a stuffed animal. It’s pink, sitting in an office chair at a desk, with big eyes and sparkles. _What…?_

“That’s her!” Kokoro shout-whispers. “That’s the bear I was talking about earlier…!”

“Good morning, Hope’s Peak Students!” she shouts. It’s weird, looking upon that giant screen, seeing this stuffed animal move, speak, as if it’s a human or animate at all. Watching the movement of it’s chest as though it’s actually breathing… Because that’s just not possible, right? “Welcome to Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy!”

“Th-This… this is a joke, right?” Kanon tearfully asks. The bear on screen ignores her, because- well, because of course it would. It’s just a recording, and she’s just a robot.

“My name is Michelle,” she says with a sweet, innocent voice. It’s off-putting. “And I’m the headmaster of this academy!”

“Headmaster!?” Arisa repeats.

“What the hell… a teddy bear?” Sayo asks.

The moment Sayo finishes the last syllable of her sentence is the exact moment the screen goes black again. We all stand in silence for a few moments, save for the shuddering gasps of a few girls, waiting for whatever is to come next. The silence is as deafening as the static.

Silence.

Silence.

 Silence.

  Silence.

   Silence.

    Silence.

     S i l e n c e.

Before I even know what’s happening, the screen is falling. Falling and falling, though it doesn’t take long to reach the ground since it’s so tall. People dodge, run, duck to avoid the monster of a TV from crushing them. It’s crashing soon enough into the hard floor with a loud thud, the sounds of glass shattering and electricity buzzing, fires igniting- it’s all so much, not to even mention the intense screams around me. Screaming, crying, running: it’s all a panic. Not just the emotional ones, either. No longer is it just Kanon, Rimi, and Rinko, but now Hagumi is screaming, Arisa is crying, and even Sayo is looking helplessly from side to side. And I, in the middle, watch as the chaos unfolds, unable to help the tears in my eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey!” a voice calls. A few people listen in, those not in complete chaos, but most continue to run around.

“Hey!” it shouts again, louder, and a few more listen. Those of us listening look for the source, but find nothing.

“ _Hey_!” she finally shouts, loud enough to make your ears vibrate, and finally everyone’s attention has been caught. There’s no one source of the voice. Somehow, though impossible, it sounds like it’s coming from everywhere all at once, and we’re all confused into oblivion. That is, until a figure is moving from behind the smoke, climbing up to the top of the mass of glass and wires. Violently, it swats away the smoke.

“Whew!” she says. The smoke dissipates away from her face, and there she is: in all her glory, there stands the same teddy bear from the screen. A part of me knew the voice was the bear’s, but it was too crazy for me to even _acknowledge_ that possibility. “Sorry for all that!” she cheerily says. “I must’ve given you such a fright!”

“Wha-? _What_ !?” Misaki says. “The teddy bear is actually _real_!?”

“What is happening…?” Rimi asks, crying into her hands. Kasumi is next to her providing comfort.

“I-It’s alright!” Kasumi provides. “I’m… sure there’s just some kind of speaker inside, or something…”

“Hey!” the teddy bear shouts. “I’m not just some teddy bear! There’s no speaker inside me!”

Kanon shrieks. “Oh jesus, it _responded_!”

“A-And it’s moving!” Rinko says.

“Of course!” she sing-songs. “I’m Michelle! Your amazing, incredible headmaster! I can do anything a bear or you could do, but more!”

Michelle… that’s right! She’d said that earlier during the video.

“That’s, just… not possible,” Sayo states. Michelle scoffs.

“Impossible compossible!” she says, and though they rhyme, still definitely don’t mean the same thing. At least… I think. “Many things were impossible until they became possible! Flying, driving, going to space, running, turning invisible!”

“Wait a minute. Running has always been possible, and invisibility is-”

“Nothing is truly impossible! With new-age technology and unnatural scientific advances, anything and everything will soon be possible!”

Michelle’s words settle within us. Mulling them over, I sourly realize she’s right. People are developing technology so advanced I couldn’t begin to understand, and it seems like a possibility that Michelle could be some kind of AI robot or controlled by someone else, but… isn’t that still kind of crazy?

“Well, now that I’ve successfully stunned you into silence by the heavy truth to my words, we may as well begin with the entrance ceremony?”

“Entrance ceremony… so, I was right! This is just some kind of extravagant entrance ceremony!” Kokoro giggles.

“This is highly unprofessional, then…” Sayo mutters.

“Yes, yes, I know, the screen collapsing is totally my bad, but that only happened because you called me a _teddy bear_ ,” she snaps. “But, all is forgiven! Now then: first, let’s discuss what your new school life at Hope’s Peak will be like!”

Michelle finally jumps down from the heap of used-to-be to screen, and now we can see what she really looks like up close. Finally I can see how _short_ she is, and how she doesn’t even reach my waist. I can’t help but shortly chuckle, and I can tell others feel the same way.

“Aw, Michelle is so cute!” Hagumi coons.

Beside Hagumi stands Kokoro, but in an instant she’s gone and in another she’s hugging Michelle, petting her fur. “Michelle is so nice and cute!”

“H-Hey! Violence against the school headmaster is strictly prohibited!”

“Michelle, she’s not attacking you! She’s giving you a hug!” Hagumi says.

Michelle, clearly unsure of the situation at hand, squirms uncomfortably in Kokoro’s arms. Awkwardly, she loops her arms back around Kokoro’s waist in a loose embrace. She gives a few forced pats to her back. “Th-This isn’t how this entrance ceremony is supposed to go,” Michelle says, and quickly, she grows angry. “Alright, get offa me!” she shouts. Kokoro obliges, but her attitude doesn’t waver. Michelle huffs. “Anyways… as I was _saying_ … Welcome to your new school life! This is, as I’m assuming you know, Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy! This entrance ceremony- this one, right here -is only the beginning of your long, fantastic, communal, permanent stay within this school!”

...Permanent…

My mind wanders to the note by my desk when I first woke up.

_Welcome to Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy!_

_The new semester is about to begin._

_When you wake up, please find your way to the gymnasium._

_Enjoy your permanent new school life._

Permanent new school life. Permanent stay within this school. What does this all mean? What is Michelle saying? My mind is so boggled I can’t do anything but think, and the rest of the girls stay silent, too. Watching, waiting, either for Michelle to do another thing or someone to say something else.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Chisato finally asks.

“Oh, you need further clarification? Alright, well! Basically, what I’m trying to get at, is that you’ll all be here for the rest of your natural lives. Until the day you die!”

This inflicts lots of instant feedback.

“What? This is just a joke, right?” Misaki asks.

“What the hell? There’s no way I’m staying here until I _die_!” Arisa says.

“Oh my god. We’re trapped. Oh… oh my god,” Rinko says.

“I’m being 100% serious!” Michelle pouts. “I would never lie! I’m programmed to tell the truth and nothing but the truth! Oh, and, by the way, I should probably mention… you all are completely cut off from the outside world.”

“Cut off? But, wait- what prevents us from just walking outside and running off?” I finally decide to be useful in the conversation and ask a question.

“Oh, outside? Well, you can’t actually _go out there_ ,” Michelle bitterly laughs. “The windows? The outside world? It’s all a sham!”

“But, wait, the windows…?” I ask. Michelle sweetly giggles.

“I don’t know. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.”

“Okay, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Sayo angrily asks and, I admit, I’m quite surprised at the profanity. Her brows are furrowed and her arms are crossed as she looks down upon Michelle. “Literally, what the _fuck_?”

“Woah, hey there! Calm down, or else I’ll have to give you a detention! I haven’t gotten to the most exciting part of the ceremony yet!”

“Detention- _most exciting part-_ do you really think I give a shit? I’ll break your goddamn neck!”

“Sayo, _please_ ,” Chisato breaks in, “control your temper. You don’t know what you could be getting yourself into.”

Sayo throws the most intense glare at Chisato, but Chisato’s disposition doesn’t even quiver. Chisato stands strong as they send each other harsh looks. Sayo gives up eventually and mutters something to herself as she walks away to the edge of the gym.

“Geez Louise!” Michelle exclaims. “ _That_ was tense! You know, if you guys want to leave so bad, you could’ve told me!”

“We have been telling you,” Arisa deadpans.

“Hey, there’s no need to be such a smartass! Anyways: I believe I’ve neglected to inform you about the Graduation Clause!”

“Graduation Clause?” I ask.

“Yep, that’s what I said! Now open your ear holes nice and wide, because this rule is very important to your life as a student,” Michelle says, and she begins to pace. “The Graduation Clause is a clause created, by me, for those of you who would like to leave the school!”

“ _Yes_ ,” Kanon strangles out, “ _please_.” Michelle seems to find Kanon’s pleas to be hilarious, for she laughs a boisterous laugh.

“Hold your horses there Ms. Matsubara, I’m not finished-”

“You know my name!?”

“- _as I was saying_ ,” Michelle clears her throat, then turns her back to us. “As I previously mentioned, you will all be living in harmony together within this school! However, I understand that not everyone will be happy with this arrangement, so your loving and great headmaster created the Graduation Clause! The clause states that if a student would like to leave the school…” she turns to face us, “...all one would have to do is disrupt the harmony, so they and they alone could leave the school.”

“‘Disrupt the harmony?’” Chisato says.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Arisa asks.

“Well, my cheerful students, that’s simple! To disrupt the harmony is to disrupt the life, and to disrupt the life is to murder, of course.”

“Murder!?” I ask.

“Yes,  murder! Killing, death, how you say it and how you do it doesn’t matter! Stabbing, drowning, burning, choking, deca-”

“Oh my god, please _stop_ ,” Rinko cries. I look over and see her looking down, her eyes shut tight and her hands covering her ears. Tiny tears squeeze out the best they can from her scrunched eyelids. Eve stands next to her, comforting the best she can, and the sympathy I feel stabs my heart.

“W-We would never kill someone just to leave this school!” I shout at Michelle. “I’d rather live here forever than _murder_ another person!” I hear a few words of affirmation around me, a few agreements, but Michelle only scoffs.

“You say that now, but I know how you young people are! Always needing stimulation, always needing new things: it’s pathetic, if you ask me. Your hope may be strong, but despair is stronger!” Michelle giggles and giggles. The sound begins to grate my ears. “And way more exciting, too. Now, allow me to explain the rules of the Graduation Clause further!” she moved around a little bit, finding a nice spot to stand to where she could see everyone well. “If one of you were to kill another student, a class trial would immediately commence!”

“...Class trial?” Tae asks.

“Yeppers! After a student dies, the rest of the remaining students assemble to work together in a class trial! In a class trial, the _blackened_ killer will face off against the _spotless_ classmates. During the trail, you’ll present your arguments about who you think the blackened is. After the trial, the outcome is determined by popular vote. If you choose the right blackened, the blackened will be punished, and the rest of you may continue with your communal school life! However, if you choose the wrong answer… then the actual blackened will survive, and everyone else will receive punishment! Which means, if you kill someone and don’t get caught, you get to live and leave this school!”

“S-So wait… ‘punishment’ means…” Eve whispers.

“That’s right!” Michelle shouts back. “Execution!”

I stand in silence as Michelle’s words sink into me. Execution… death… I feel the anxiety rising in me. To kill to leave, or to stay forever? My heart beats fast, and it almost feels as though it’s going to _burst_ , the stress and anxiety crushing it down inside my ribs. Everyone else is silent as well, the atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife. Michelle, surprisingly, has become deathly quiet as well.

“Please,” Rimi suddenly cries from across the gym, with Kasumi’s arms around her. “Just let us go!”

“ _Please_!” Kanon cries as well.

Soon enough, everyone is crying along with them. I can feel the desperation from them all, even from those not being vocal about their pleas. I look around me as girls from each side cry, yell, getting down on their knees _begging_ , asking for Michelle to let them go home. I feel my face start to prickle, the heat of tears welling in the corners of my eyes. I clasp my hands together in a prayer of sorts as I sob. “Please… let us go home.”

“Wah, wah, wah!” Michelle mocks. “You girls are such crybabies! You keep saying the same thing over and over again, but doing that does nothing but waste your breath! No matter how much you cry, how much you plea, the simple fact is that this school will be the rest of your life, until you take the initiative change that!”

“I have a question,” Sayo asks, cutting in through the cries. Somewhere within the disorder, Sayo had migrated from the outskirts of the gym back to the center of the group. I look at her, and her eyes are dark. Her whole temperament is serious and tense. I look back at Michelle, and she looks nervous; at least, as nervous as a teddy bear can look.

“Y-Yes?”

“You mentioned earlier, when Kokoro hugged you… that ‘violence against the headmaster is prohibited,’ or whatever. What, exactly, would the result be if someone were to attack you?”

“Oh, I get it!” Michelle says. “You’re just trying to see what would happen to you if you attacked me! Well, you can’t pull over a fast one on me, Ms. Hikawa! If you try to harm me- or break any of the other rules, for that matter -the result is immediate punishment!”

“‘Punishment’...? That’s way too broad,” Sayo says.

“Punishment as in death.”

A few girls gasp in shock, but Sayo doesn’t seem affected. “What if I don’t believe you?”

“Would you like to test it out?”

“What if I do?”

“Sayo!” several girls shout at the same time, including myself.

“Please, Sayo, don’t risk that,” Chisato says. She seems as though she’s becoming quite the voice of reason. “It’s better safe than sorry.”

“Why do you think you know what’s best!?” Sayo asks to Chisato. I can feel the anger radiating off of her.

“Sayo, please! I-It’s not just Chisato, a lot of us think it’s better to keep it safe!” Kanon shyfully pipes up. She gets a few words and nods of agreement, and I can see Sayo quietly begin to seeth.

“I think there’s another thing we should be focusing on,” Misaki says. “Michelle, you just mentioned that there are ‘other rules.’ How are we supposed to not break them if we don’t even know them?”

Michelle beams. “Ah, I’m glad you ask! To commemorate you entry into this school, I have a present for you all!”

With some sort of magic power, Michelle turns around and reaches down into somewhere. She comes back up, turns around, and in her hands is a large stack of some kind of… tablets? They’re very thin, blue, and have the Hope’s Peak symbol printed on the front.

“These are the Hope’s Peak official student handbook!” Michelle announces. “They’re all digital, so naturally, we call them the e-Handbooks! The e-Handbooks are _essential_ to your life here as a student, so don’t lose it! When you start up your handbook, your name is displayed, so make sure you always have the right one! Your e-Handbook cannot be destroyed: so you won’t have to worry about that, and your e-Handbook also contains all the rules and regulations you need to follow as a student! Please, read everything very carefully! I’ve said this before, but breakage of any of the rules will result in immediate punishment, so be careful.”

Michelle then hands us all our handbooks. I inspect mine closely. When I turned it on, ‘Aya Maruyama’ shone brightly on the screen. The handbook had sections for different topics: one for rules, one for the map, one for the list of students… even a tab that said ‘chat.’

“And, well, that’s basically all for our entrance ceremony! Please enjoy your abundantly dreary school life, and-”

“Wait a minute!” Misaki calls. Michelle stops in her tracks, staring through Misaki. “I have one last question.”

“Erm- yes, what is it?”

“What is that other building? You know, the one right across from here?”

“Oh! Well, that’s the other school: Despair’s Descent Girls’ Academy. That school is connected to this one, though they’re still separate schools. That is where the other eleven students are living.”

“Wait- _hold on._ There are _more_ people!?” Arisa asks.

And then, as quick as the information had been let out, we’re carrying it with us. Kokoro bolts out of the gym. A few of us call for her, but our voices don’t reach as she already scurrys down the hall. The sane half of us stays put, while the other half exits in the same fashion Kokoro had. My legs begin to hurt from running so hard.

Eventually, I catch up to Kokoro. I’m surprised; she was running fast, her professionally trained legs bringing her far, where I- as unathletic as I am -struggle to run for more than half a minute. But I see why soon enough: she’d stopped, dead in her tracks, upon going through a door to a hallway. The hallway was long, wide, generally _large_ \- less of a hallway and more of a long room, but the surplus of windows lining the walls and lack of furniture distinguishes the types of room from one another. The part that stands out most about the hall, however, are the people standing at the other end.

They’re all unique: stand out in strong contrast compared to each other, yet somehow blend in together through the fact that all of them are extravagant and interesting.

“Is this them?” a girl from the other end asks. A girl with long, lilac hair, and piercing brown eyes.

“Of course,” another girl smiles. This one has short, blue hair, and… looks quite a bit like Sayo. There’s a certain vibe to this girl that I can’t put my finger on. Something in her eyes…

“Wait, who are _you_ guys?” Tae asks from behind me. Startled, I turn around to look at her, not expecting anyone behind me, but instead see everyone from the gym huddled and cramped together inside the corridor. Even the more serious and reserved ones: Arisa, Sayo, Misaki…

“That’s what _we_ wanna know,” a sassy girl with purple-haired pigtails says. She’s _tiny,_ and looks smaller and younger than everyone else in the room. She has this kind of strange edgy, sort of gothic fashion going on.

“We just came from in there,” I provide, pointing behind me to emphasize the ‘there.’ “A teddy bear popped up out of nowhere, gave us this whole spiel about a killing game and living here forever, and… and then told us there were _more_ students living in the other school building, so we all raced to get to there, and… yeah.”

“Oh, I see…” a girl with short, gray hair lazily says from the other side. “Funny, us too…”

A long moment of silence invades the room. I take in each and every girl in the quiet moment. Some girls look more average than others, while those others stick out like a sore thumb; but even still, each and everyone has a unique personality I can feel almost radiating from them.

“Woah. Guys, look through the windows over there,” a girl says. She has long, red hair and blue eyes. I look out the window next to me, but see nothing different: nothing but the same green landscape outside all the windows.

“Woah!” the gothic girl from before says. She rushes over to the window I had just been looking out of, and peers out with amazement. “This is incredible!”

“Wait, what…?” I whisper to myself, but the confusion is short-lived until I look over to where the other girls stand, _really_ look, right outside the windows.

My eyes widen a bit, and I run over to one of the windows on the other side of the hall. Outside these windows are no longer the long fields of green and vibrant flowers, a beaming sun, but instead the world outside these windows is wrecked and barren. There are buildings as far as the eye can see, but most of them are almost completely torn down and destroyed. Large crevasses split the ground apart. The sky is a dark red, swirling with the black and gray smoke that streams into the air from various areas beyond my line of sight. Broken glass and scatters of pieces of building litter the ground.

“What the hell…?” I say. I look behind me, back to where I originally stood, and I see through those windows is still the same beautiful scenery.

Soon enough, everyone around me is rushing from window to window, talking amongst themselves in confusion, excitement, and _despair_. I move to another window, peering out into the reds, grays, and blacks outside. I shuffle a bit to look out of the window next door, and the light from the sun nearly blinds me. I shift my perspective, putting my face almost directly up to the glass, but no matter how far I lean in and look to the sides, one window is still dark, and the other is still bright. “This is so weird…” I say.

“Hey, so… if both groups just went through the same lecture, does that mean there are multiple Michelles?” Arisa asks as she looks out a red window. A few girls look at her in genuine confusion.

“...Huh?” the gothic girl asks. Arisa turns away from her window.

“Y’know, Michelle? The teddy bear? Pink, big sparkly eyes?”

“Uh…” a brunette girl with glasses speaks up. “We… we met this bear, yes, but he’s nothing like how you just described. He’s half black, half white, and just… really strange looking. I think his name was like…”

“ _Monokuma_ ,” Sayo’s look-alike says.

“Yes, that!” the brunette says.

“There’s _two_ bears!?” a girl with pink hair in pigtails exclaims.

“Seems like it…” the girl with lilac hair says. “Though, their bear sounds much more ‘pleasant.’”

“Oh, _god_ -” Kanon cries, “-this is so horrible! We’re all gonna die here!” she wails, covering her face with her hands. I see a few other girls quiver at her words, myself included.

“Fret not, dearest kittens!” a stunning girl with purple hair tied into a ponytail. “The situation at present is fleeting at best! I shall protect you all from the chaos of these schools. You’ll all be safe with me. And, plus… I’m sure the police will be coming for us, or… something…”

I hear Chisato snort somewhere behind me.

“She’s right, you guys!” Kasumi says. “We all just need to stay positive! I believe in all of you, and I know everything will be okay if we work together!” she says, then pauses. She seems to be thinking something over. “I know! Let’s all get to know each other! I mean- the group of people I came in with already introduced ourselves to each other, but the rest of us should do that too! It can do nothing but help us, and if we need to figure out a way of escape together, how will we do that if we don’t even know each other’s names?” She brings up the same good points she’d mentioned before.

“Oh, we’ve already introduced ourselves to each other, too,” Sayo’s look-alike smiles. “But it definitely wouldn’t hurt to get to know the rest of you too.”

Kasumi smiles. “That’s great, then! So let’s get to it!”

With her words, everyone dispersed, turning to talk for the second time that day. I scan the room for someone to talk to, and my eyes land on Sayo’s look-alike. There’s something about her that’s both intriguing, and just a little bit… off. I approach her.

“Hello,” she greets, almost as soon as I start walking towards her.

“Hi!” I greet back. “How are you?” I ask, and I realize how stupid it sounds as soon as it leaves my lips. She just smiles.

“Good enough. And you?”

“Ah, I’m doing alright too! I mean, y’know… I guess. I could definitely be better,” I nervously laugh. “Uh, what’s your name?”

“Hina Hikawa. Yours?”

“I’m Aya Maruyama! Ultimate Lucky Student! Uh… do you need an explanation of that?”

“No. I already know what it means.”

I wasn’t expecting that response. “Oh? Um, well, what’s your Ultimate?”

“I have two,” she smiles. “The Ultimate Astronomer, and the Ultimate Genius.”

“You have _two_ talents!?” I ask, utterly mind-boggled. She laughs at me.

“Yes, I do. Astronomer and Genius,” she repeats to me, as if I’m too stupid to comprehend. Which, may be a little true, because I won’t lie when I say that I don’t understand how she has _two_ talents.

“Uh- yeah, so, like… why?”

“Why do I have two talents?” she cocks her head.

“Yes. I’ve never heard of that before…”

Hina smiles _that_ smile again. “Well, being the ‘Ultimate Genius,’ I’m obviously already naturally gifted,” she brags, “but astronomy has always been my strong suit. Not only do I like it the most, but I’m the best at it. They were trying to decide which talent to give me, and said that ‘astronomer’ didn’t capture my genius well enough, but ‘genius’ was too broad. So, they gave me both. Fitting for someone of my caliber!” she laughs. I can clearly tell how much she loves to brag about herself.

“...Oh. Wow, well, that’s really incredible!”

“I know, right?”

I start to feel uncomfortable. I can feel her eyes piercing me, analyzing me as if I’m some sort of equation. What is she thinking? Do I _want_ to know? I don’t think I do. I try to think of something, _anything_ to say to change the topic. I think back through the things that we’ve both said, and something pops into my mind that suddenly begins to bother me.

“Hey. Did you say your last name is ‘Hikawa…?’”

“Yes, that’s correct. Sound familiar? I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Yeah- well, I mean, _no._ Yes, but not in the way your thinking. It’s just- there’s this girl here, her name is Sayo, and she has the last name as you. Looks quite a bit like you, too, except with longer hair, and more… serious.”

“Ah, I see. Must be my twin,” she smiles more.

 _That_ I wasn’t expecting. I was expecting a more surprised reaction, maybe a gasp or just a ‘really?’ but for her to act so nonchalant and confident as if she was expecting it… maybe she is a genius. Would that mean Sayo really is her twin, then? It’s all too complicated for me to even wrap my head around.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me,” she says and walks in another direction. My eyes follow her as she soundlessly leaves. I feel like an ass for saying this, but there’s something very _off_ about Hina to me. She obviously hasn’t even done anything wrong, which is why I feel bad for even thinking it, but something about her makes me very wary of being near her. I feel like everytime she looks at me she’s analyzing me like an equation, and everytime I speak she’s picking apart my words in her head and secretly judging every move I make. It makes me feel yucky.

However, I try to shake it off, both my thoughts and feelings, and look for someone new to talk to. My eyes land on a girl with black hair, a red stripe framing her face, standing alone by a dark window. I approach her.

“Hello,” I greet, a bit cautious after my last interaction. She doesn’t answer. She continues to stare out the window, her pink eyes taking in all the dismay and anguish outside. I subtly clear my throat. “Um… hello?”

Her face snaps to me. She’s all full of seriousness, and now that she’s facing me, I can finally see how stern her face is: full of tension, an array of secrets lying beneath her eyes and skin. I feel myself involuntarily gulp.

“Hello.”

“Um- hi! I’m Aya Maruyama, the Ultimate Lucky Student,” I awkwardly stick my hand out, looking for a handshake? I think?

Her left hand holds her cheek as she leans against the windowsill, and she grasps my hand with her free hand. “Hey, Aya. I’m Ran. Ultimate Flower Arranger.”

Oh, thank god. She didn’t ask about my talent. “Oh! Ultimate Flower Arranger, huh? Really? You…” I shamefully look her up and down, “...don’t seem like the type.”

She sighs. “I get that a lot. To be honest, I…” she trails off. I see a far away look in her eyes as she looks back out the window, and her face is conflicted. “I never really wanted to be a flower arranger.”

“...Huh?”

I think back to the conversation Misaki and I had earlier. Being super talented at something, but not even liking it... everyone I’ve met so far seems to have liked their talent, and _radiates_ the type of person I could see with that talent. (Well, almost.) But Ran… I can’t help but feel bad for her. First world problems, I guess.

“Yeah. It kinda sucks. My dad has forced me to do it since I was a little kid, and I was really good at it, and it just stuck. Unfortunately,” she sighs again. “I used to like it, but I have different passions now.”

“Well, if you could choose your talent now, what would it be?”

“The Ultimate Musician.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve always had a strong love for music… I love playing guitar and singing. My dad hates it, but I’ve never cared. All I’ve wanted to do is play music.”

Now that she says it, I can see it. I could definitely imagine her strumming the strings of a guitar, or passionately singing into a microphone… wait. That reminds me…

“Oh! That’s really interesting, because I just met a few girls a bit ago who all played instruments: almost like a band!”

I saw her tense a bit. “Really? Where?”

“Um…” I searched around the room a second. My eyes fell on Kasumi. “Well, the singer is over there, and-”

Suddenly, she was already moving away. She beelined it to Kasumi, giving a quick “excuse me” as she walks, leaving me alone for the second time that day. Why does everyone keep walking away from me like that…? I guess I’ll just find someone else to talk to.

I approach the small girl from earlier, the one with purple pigtails who looks younger than everyone else. I smile, with a “hello!”

She turns to me. At first, her face is innocent: her wide, red eyes take me in, her mouth forming a small ‘o’ as I wave to her. I thought she was just a cute kid, until suddenly her expression morphed, her eyebrows furrowing with a mischievous smile uncurling on her lips. Oh no, what now?

“Ah, hello, mortal-!” mortal? “-the all-powerful Mage of Darkness, Ako, stands before you! With the great power of Eternal Shadow that resides within, I shall… I shall… boom! And, kapow! And one of these-” she starts doing some weird gestures, -”and some of this, and I crash into you! Like, _boom_ ~!” she yells out. I’ve never been more confused in my life, and she just giggles. “Wow, I’m just so cool, right!? I’ve been practicing that.”

“...Uh,” I start, dumbfounded. “You just said your name is… Ako, right?”

“Yes, the great Ako Udagawa, the Ultimate Dark Mage! Fufufu…”

“Oh! You’re the Ultimate Dark Mage?”

“Ah, w-well… no. That was just poor word choice on my part. I’m... actually the Ultimate Gamer.”

I think that over. Yeah… not much of a surprise. She seems like the type of person who would enjoy those RPG games, especially with her personality and sense of style. “Oh, that’s really cool! I like video games a little bit, too. What are your favorite types?”

“Oh, RPG games for sure!” she boasts. Nailed it. “I remember I used to always play them with my best friend, but… I forgot all about her…” she turns solemn, and it’s a stark contrast from how she was just moments before.

“Ah… so you guys lost your memories too, huh?”

She perks up a little. “Yeah, you guys as well!?” I nod. “That’s so weird… it’s, like, some kind of collective amnesia or something. Is that a thing?”

“Ahah, I don’t think so.”

“Hmm, darn, I thought I was onto something there…” I only laugh. “Oh, hey, what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Aya Maruyama! The Ultimate Lucky Student.”

“Ultimate Lucky Student!? Ooh, what’s that mean?” she asks, and I sigh. Here we go again.

I give the rap.

“Oh~! Wow, that’s, like, _so_ cool!”

I click my tongue. “Oh, come on, don’t lie: I’m sure it must take ten times more effort for you than me.”

“Well… yeah. You may be right, it does take a lot of effort, because I wasn’t just naturally gifted. I had to work hard to get to where I am, and I guess it’s paid off. But you… luck isn’t something you can just train to have. You must truly be real lucky.”

There’s another thing to think about. I guess I’d just naturally assumed everyone here has been gifted at their talents since birth, since that’s kinda what I’ve always thought a ‘talent’ is. But, working hard to be amazing at your talent definitely deserves some recognition, and I’m happy for Ako. And, she might be right… maybe I am just real lucky.

“Well, I’m proud of how far you’ve come, then! That’s really impressive, and I can’t even imagine what sort of things you’ve been able to accomplish. You seem like a really cool person.” I look around Ako’s face, and when I meet her eyes, I see the tears welling in them. I begin to panic, worrying I’d accidentally said something wrong. “Oh no! Please don’t cry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Oh, Aya!” Ako sobs. She pushes herself into me, tightly wrapping her arms around my waist. “Thank you. Thank you so much! That-” she sniffs, and nuzzles her head into my chest, “-means a lot to me.”

I can’t help but smile. I ruffle her hair. “No problem, kiddo.”

Ako pulls away, a bright smile on her face and tears still in the corners of her eyes. She sniffs again. “W-Well, I should go clean myself up now; see you later, Aya. We shall meet again in another life! So, um… excuse me,” she says, and for the third time that day, a girl walks away from me after saying ‘excuse me.’ Seriously? I might be lucky, but I certainly don’t feel it right now.

I walk up to a girl with long, red hair, who looks a bit similar to Ako. “Hello!” I say.

“Oh, hey man! What’s up?” she nonchalantly says. “I’m Tomoe Udagawa! I’m the Ultimate Soldier! How ‘bout you?”

Tomoe Udagawa is… _incredibly_ fit. She’s tall, muscular, and I also notice that she has many scars painting her arms, legs, chest, even a few scraping her face. However, Tomoe is still undeniably beautiful, her blue eyes an ocean, her red hair silky smooth, and curves in all the right places… I shake myself, realizing I’m getting side tracked, and once again there’s another thing bothering me similar to when I talked to Hina.

“‘Udagawa,’ you say?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, this is _so_ weird.”

“What is it?”

“Well, it’s just that earlier, I met a girl named _Ako_ Udagawa, and then even earlier than that I-”

“Wait, you met a girl with the last name as mine?” Tomoe asks, leaning forward a tad.

At first, I thought she was about to freak out, or maybe react in a weird way like Hina did. But when I say “yeah,” she leans back, and after a second of pause, says “wow! That’s a funny coincidence, hahah. Never thought that would happen.”

Not even realizing I’d tensed up, I felt my muscles relax at her composed response. “Heh, yeah, I thought the same thing. You guys even look a little bit alike, it’s strange,” I laugh.

She laughs too. “Hey, by the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Oh! I’m sorry, my name is Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.”

“Oh, the Ultimate Lucky Student? What’s that mean?”

I give the rap.

“Oh, wow! That’s awesome!” she exclaims. I lazily smile.

“Thanks…”

“So, hey… just wondering, who is this Ako girl?” she asks.

“Oh! Uh…” I quickly scan the room, until my eyes land on purple hair and pigtails. I point to her. “Over there, with the pigtails.”

“Ah, alright. Thank you! Sorry to cut this conversation short, but I kind of want to talk to her, so if you’ll excuse me…”

She walks away. And at this point, I honestly shouldn’t be surprised, but I still feel the hurt crashing down on me as I see her backside getting farther and farther away. Darn, I didn’t even get to ask about her talent... I guess it’s onto the next girl.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a girl with gray hair sitting on the ground alone. She has a distant look in her eyes, and I decide to approach her. “Hey,” I say upon reaching her, and I take the spot next to her on the ground.

She looks at me, and smiles. “Hey.”

“I’m Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student. How about you?”

She smiles again, and I notice how lazy her smiles are. Her chin is buried in her arms as she rests on her own knees. She looks at me with her droopy, doe eyes. “I’m Moca. Moca Aoba,” she simply says. I wait a moment, expecting her to maybe follow up with her talent at some point, but it never came. I awkwardly clear my throat.

“Uh… what’s your talent, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh…” she grumbles, looking at me. “I don’t really… remember my talent.”

“You don’t remember?”

“Mm, no… guess the amnesia hit me harder or something. Only remember my name…” she sighs. I see her eyes flutter shut.

Weird… another thing to think about. I know we all got some sort of amnesia, but I didn’t think it could’ve hit someone hard enough as to where they don’t remember their talent, the whole reason they’re _here_. “That’s strange…” I voice my thoughts. When I don’t hear a response, I assume she must have fell asleep. In a whisper, I say “excuse me,” and get up to talk to someone else.

I spot another girl with purple hair, but she’s different from Ako. She’s _very_ tall, her hair is in a ponytail instead of pigtails, and I can tell even from a distance that she’s quite well built. I make my approach to her.

“Hello!” I say to her. She turns to face me, and immediately I’m trapped underneath her gaze. Her eyes pin me to the floor: they’re dark and beautiful and utterly _striking_ , and I momentarily forget where I am as she smirks.

“Ah… hello, my little kitten. I’m Kaoru Seta, charmed. And you may be…?” she says in her deep voice, and suddenly she’s grabbing my hand and oh _god._

“Um-! I’m uh…” name? Name, starts with an A… Arisa? No, that’s not me, um… “Aya…?” yes! Yes, that’s it! “Yeah, Aya! I’m Aya Maruyama, the Ultimate Lucky student. And, uh… well, you just told me your name, but- how about your, uh, talent?”

Kaoru laughs her charming laugh, and I’m still unsure what to do or what I’m even feeling. “You’re a silly little kitten…” and then, of _all things_ she could do, she kisses my hand with her annoyingly _perfect_ and soft lips, and I feel as if I’m about to explode. “I’m the Ultimate Thespian.”

That distracts me, even if for just a second. “Thespian…? Uh… I’m unfamiliar with the term.”

“Fufu, that’s alright, my dear, I get that quite often… what I do is act, but not in movies: instead on the stage, in live performances!”

“Oh, I see! So you’re a theatre actress? That’s so cool!” I exclaim.

“Thank you, my kitten, but what I really want to know-” she kisses my hand again “-is more about _you._ ”

Yep, there it is again. I blush and give the rap again, but in a very flustered way.

“Ah, I see… how fleeting… my kitten, I think you are truly amazing!” she says, with another kiss to my hand. At this point it almost looks like it’s blushing. “I could never imagine accomplishing such feats.”

“Ahah! W-Well, really, uh, it’s nothing.”

Kaoru doesn’t say anything after that, instead just stares into my soul, and I know I need to get out of here before I really do explode. I say a quick goodbye to Kaoru as soon as I can, and I go to scope the area again as my blood pressure settles down. My eyes decide to settle on a girl with short, brown hair, who’s the only one in the room wearing glasses. I walk to her, and say “hello!”

“Hello!” she kindly says back, and I smile. “I’m Maya Yamato, the Ultimate Technician. And you?”

“I’m Aya Maruyama! The Ultimate Lucky Student. Ultimate Technician, huh?”

“Yeah! I usually do the lights for theatre plays, and help out with a lot of the other tech, and I’ve helped out on a few big movies! Japanese movies, European movies, American movies… huehue, I just really love working with electronics,” Maya says, flushed in the face. Cute.

“Heheh, you’re adorable. That’s nice. I’m sure you’re very talented: you sound real impressive! It must be nice having something you’re so passionate about.”

“Huehue, I guess… thank you…! But, y’know, what about you? What about your talent?”

I give the rap.

“...and, you know, I’ve just never had something I was really super passionate about, you know? Well, I mean, I guess you really _don’t_ know because you have your talent and all, but…”

“Hey, it’s alright. Believe it or not, I do understand how you feel. Before I discovered my love for tech and electronics, I had almost nothing… I saw everyone around me having these hobbies and interests, but I didn’t know what I had. Until I worked on my first school theatre play- on the lights -and I knew this is what’s meant for me. I had a natural gift of working with technology right away, and it just felt… right. I knew then, and I think you’ll know someday too. And… ah, well, and I’ve been talking too much, huehuehue… sorry.”

I give her an encouraging smile. “No, it’s alright. I think it’s very sweet. You’re laugh is nice.”

“Huehuehue… thank you…!” she ferociously blushes. I give her a gentle smile, wave a quick goodbye, and go off on my way to talk to someone new.

Scanning the room once again, I realize I’ve already talked to almost everyone here. It’s hard to find a new girl to talk to, but my eyes find a girl with short, brown hair and deep brown eyes. I walk over.

“Hi!” I say as I approach.

Tsugumi turns a bit to look at me more head-on. Her eyes are innocent, and she has a sweet smile plastered to her face. “Hello,” she says back.

“I’m Aya Maruyama, the Ultimate Lucky Student. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Ah, it’s very nice to meet you too! I’m Tsugumi Hazawa, the Ultimate Barista.”

Tsugumi’s general color palette is very brown. She wears a cute brown dress with tights and a tan little jacket. I try to imagine her making coffee and serving people, and I find it easy to imagine. She seems to me like a sweet girl.

“That’s awesome! How’d you get that title?”

“Ahah, it’s not really impressive… I work at my family’s cafe, Hazawa Cafe- creative, I know -and I’ve just… gotten really good at it. It’s almost like it’s in my bloodline, because my parents and grandparents are also amazing baristas. When I was 10, I invented a coffee recipe that became used in cafes worldwide, and I guess that solidified my place as a barista.”

“Hazawa Cafe… that sounds a tad familiar…” I think out loud. “Uh- hey, what coffee recipe is it that you created?”

“The Pumpkin Spice Latte.”

I look at her with wide eyes. “Wait- what? _The_ Pumpkin Spice Latte?”

She nods. “At least, I think. Not very sure. I think I also invented a few other things, like the Peppermint Mocha and the Caramel Macchiato…”

“Oh my god,” I say, my head spinning a tad. “Really? All those things?”

“Yep! Despite being a family run cafe, there are Hazawa Cafes _everywhere,_ but the one I work at is exclusively for family.”

“Wow…” I breathe. With every person I talk to here, I’m just that much more blown away. Everyone is so talented and has made so much of themselves, _especially_ at such a young age… I’ll never fit in.

“But, hey, what about you and your talent?”

I give the rap.

“Wow! Honestly, I think that’s really cool. That must truly be some good luck.”

I give a weak smile, and I’m not really feeling it. “Eheh… maybe.”

Deciding it’s the right time to leave and talk to someone else, I say my goodbyes to Tsugumi, and walk to the center of the corridor. As I scan the room, I realize there’s only three people left I haven’t met yet: and two of them are already talking to one another. _Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone._ I make my way over.

“Hello!” I greet.

“Oh. Hi,” a girl with long, lilac hair says. She doesn’t really seem into it… I mean, I don’t blame her, but _still_.

“Hello!” a girl with curly, long, brown hair says as well, a _lot_ more enthusiastically than the other girl. I notice quickly how utterly beautiful she is. Her figure is to die for, there’s not a single blemish or otherwise on her face, and her hair is done to perfection. I smile brightly.

“Hey. How are you guys? What are your names?”

“I’m Lisa Imai!” the perfect girl exclaims. “I’m the Ultimate Supermodel! It’s so nice to meet you!”

 _Ah…_ that explains that. She seems like the perfect candidate to be on the cover of a magazine or the star walking down the runway, modeling clothes or just being perfect. She seems nice, too, which is a quality I feel like I’d expect to see from a model.

“What about you?” I say, turning to the other girl. She seems to slouch, probably hoping I’d forgot she even exists.

“I’m Yukina Minato,” she tells me. I wait a few seconds for her to say the possible talent, but like with Moca… it never came.

“Um,” I subtly clear my throat, “what’s your talent? If you don’t mind sharing…”

“It’s none of your business,” she snaps. I instantly step down.

“A-Ah, that’s fine, that’s fine!” I blurt as fast as I can. Lisa gives Yukina a look.

“Yukina…” she says. “It’s okay, she’s just curious.”

“I don’t have the obligation to tell her.”

“Of course not. But…”

Yukina seems to have had enough. She sends a glare to the both of us and walks away briskly, walking up to Kasumi and falling in by her side. I can’t help but feel my face get hot, the corners of my eyes prickling with the threat of tears.

“Don’t mind her, she’s just a little reserved,” Lisa comforts. She places a hand on my shoulder.

“...Did she tell you her talent?” I ask.

“Yeah, but I’m not really sure why, honestly. She seems to be only opening up to a few people, and I’m not sure why I was one of them… I’m not really sure why Kasumi is, either,” she says, shrugging. “But, between you and me, she told me that she’s the Ultimate Songwriter,” she whispers. “Why she wants to keep that a secret? I don’t know, and I don’t really think there’s any harm in telling it,” she shrugs again.

“The Ultimate Songwriter? Huh… she might be trusting of Kasumi because she’s the Ultimate Vocalist, but… I really don’t know.”

“Oh! Huh… I never thought of it that way… you might be onto something!” she playfully nudges me. “Oh, hey, I just realized I never got your name!”

I give my name and talent, and just give the rap as well to save time.

“Aya… that’s a real nice name! I love it. Your talent is super cool, too.”

“Oh, please, don’t even give me that. Your talent is ten times cooler!”

“Hey, don’t say that. It’s not a competition. You don’t have to compare yourself to me or anyone else here, because we’re all here for extraordinary reasons,” she says, then puts a hand on my shoulder. She gives me a squeeze. “I don’t wanna hear you tear yourself down, okay?”

I look up at her with wide eyes, and _oh boy_ the prickly feeling in my face is back. Hearing someone like this, a _supermodel_ talk about you like that is probably the best feeling in the world and, I gotta admit, quite the ego boost. I’ve heard this from so many impressive people here, I’m starting to think that it maybe, just _maybe,_ it might be true. The waterworks begin to flow.

“Oh, Lisa!” I wail, just like Ako had. I lean into her and hold her as hard as I can- similar _again_ to what Ako had done earlier -and weep for a second. She combs her fingers through my hair with one hand and holds me with her other. “Thank you, Lisa… that’s so sweet of you to say.”

Lisa giggles, and affectionately pats my head. “Oh, of course, Aya! I mean every word of it.”

I smile to myself. With one last squeeze, I pull back, and Lisa retracts her hands as well. I wipe my tears and give a little sniffle. “I’m sorry… I’m just a bit of an emotional person,” I laugh. She laughs too.

“It’s okay! You don’t have to apologize,” she genuinely says, warmly smiling.

I provide my most genuine smile back, and say my goodbyes before heading over to the one last person I need to speak to. The last girl I haven’t met has soft pink hair, styled into tiny pigtails, and sweet green eyes.

“Hello!” I say for my final time when I reach her. She smiles.

“Hey! How are ya?”

I smile back. “I’m doing pretty good! My name is Aya Maruyama. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“Oh, the pleasure is all mine! I’m Himari Uehara, the Ultimate Confectioner! Hey, hey, hoh!” she shouts passionately.

“The… confec… tioner? Hey, hey, hoh?” I ask, confused.

“Yeah! It basically just means that I make- and of course, eat. Never trust a skinny chef -many sweets! And, ah… just ignore that ‘hey, hey, hoh’ thing…”

“Wait, really? Wow. That sounds about just about, like, the coolest talent ever. How are _you_ not fat?”

“Uh- what?”

“Well, you said ‘never trust a fat chef’ and you said that you eat a lot of sweets, but I think that you look really skinny!” I boast. Well, what? It’s true!

“O-Oh, well, um… I’m not sure! Fast metabolism, I guess?” she awkwardly says. “But anyways, what about you? What does being the ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’ entail?”

I give the rap for, hopefully, the last time.

“Oh hey, wow, that’s actually really cool!” she says. “You didn’t even have to do anything. You’re kinda lucky… wait! That’s your talent anyways!” she laughs and laughs. I laugh, too.

“I guess, maybe… but being able to just eat and make sweets all day? That’s so cool! I would rather have a talent I love and can do everyday than nothing at all, honestly.”

“You _do_ have certainly have a point, but it’s not all easy work for me. I’m _very_ picky: only the best is allowed outside my doors to be sold. Usually it’s just me running around in circles before I finally, _finally_ , create the right recipe,” she sighs. “And… it actually is pretty hard keeping off the calories. I usually have to take frequent breaks to go take a run, and even then it’s _still_ hard for me to stay fit,” she sighs again. “It’s hard, sometimes…”

“Oh…” I look down. “I’m sorry.”

Himari brightens up again. “Hey, it’s okay! I really love my talent, so you don’t have to feel bad.”

I give her a smile. _I wish I could say the same thing._

I say goodbye to Himari, and it’s not until I’m away that I realize once again that I’ve talked to every single person in this room. In today alone I’ve met 24 people, and now that introductions are through… what now? What are we supposed to do, now that we know each other, but have the weight of this ‘killing game’ on our shoulders? I anxiously look around, trying to spot anyone who may be doing something, or _anyone_ that may be thinking the same thing I’m thinking. I notice that the conversations are dying, however no one is making a move.

“Well?” Moca asks. All eyes snap to her, and I see that she’s moved herself to sit in a corner. “There’s a lull in your conversations, so I’m assuming you’re mostly finished,” she says. She rubs a hand into her right eye. “So? What are you planning to do now?”

The question hangs in the air above all our heads. We’ve all been thinking in the back of our minds, ‘what now?’ this whole time, but no one has dared to speak on it. No one until now. And now that it’s been spoken, no one dares to respond. We hold in on a deathly silence.

“Really?” Moca speaks up again. “ _No one_ has been thinking about this? Now isn’t the time to make useless friends. You need to come up with a plan of action,” she says. Her voice is dull and monotone, as usual, but even so I can still feel the anger behind her words.

“...Well, what about you?” Sayo questions. “You got any bright ideas?”

Moca shrugs. “No.”

Once again, no one knows how to respond. The room is engulfed by another silence after Moca’s blunt response. We wait for her to possibly say something else, but she seems as though she won’t, as she buries her head into her arms. The silence lasts longer, but only for a few seconds.

“W-Well,” Kasumi stutters. All attention turns to her. “Um… I think, right now, we should just… we should unwind. I think we should relax, and try to stay calm. Because I know that everything will be alright! And-”

“That’s a horrible idea.” All attention turns to Hina. “Right now, the last thing we need to do is ‘relax.’ The last thing we need to do is ‘take it easy.’ The thing we need to do _most_ is be cautious and look out. To be cautious of others, and of ourselves. We’re in a seemingly hopeless situation. I’m sure you’re all scared. I am, too. Some of you might even be thinking about murder right now, but _please_ -” she says, almost pleading, “-don’t let the fear control you. Fear leads to stupid actions. We all need to be cautious of others, our thoughts, our actions, our emotions… and ourselves.”

With the weight of Hina’s words, we all look at each other. Evident on each and everyone’s faces are emotions of true fear, melancholy, everything negative you can feel. We’re all forced to take in what Hina had said, and come to terms with the fact that it’s the unbearable, hopeless truth. Everyone in this room is capable murder… even me. Fear and despair are strong things. Against our will, we’re all suddenly forced to take part in this killing game, whether we kill or not.

This day has quickly turned into one unlike any other. Today is the start of my new life at Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy. The start of the killing game. The start of the end of my life. The start of the despair… and the end of the hope.

This fucking sucks.


	2. CHAPTER 1 DAILY LIFE: DAY 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm BACK!!! I hope you guys didn't miss me too much ;)  
> I hope you're all ready for this MONSTER of a second chapter! I promise, promise, PROMISE that the next chapters will be shorter!
> 
> If you'd like to see Bangronpa updates and extra content, make sure to check out my social medias dedicated to it!  
> Instagram: @bangronpa  
> Twitter: @bangronpa (haven't really been active as of yet tho)

 

**Rule 1:**

Students are to spend the rest of their natural lives at Hope’s Peak, and are expected to follow the rules put in place.

**Rule 2:**

“Nighttime” is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The dining hall and gymnasium are off-limits during night, so please exercise caution.

**Rule 3:**

Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitories is seen as sleeping in class and will be punished accordingly.

**Rule 4:**

You are free to explore  **both** schools on site with minimal restrictions.

**Rule 5:**

Violence against both headmaster Monokuma and headmaster Michelle is strictly prohibited.

**Rule 6:**

Destruction of any school property is expressly prohibited. This includes all monitors and security cameras.

**Rule 7:**

Once a student is murdered, a class trial will commence. Participation is required for all surviving students.

**Rule 8:**

If the blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

**Rule 9:**

If the blackened is not exposed, all remaining students will be executed.

**Rule 10:**

If the blackened survives the class trial, they will graduate and re-enter the outside world.

**Rule 11:**

The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three or more people discover a body for the first time.

**Rule 12:**

Violation of any of these rules will result in instant punishment.

**Rule 13:**

Additional school regulations may be added as necessary.

 

With a heavy sigh, I raise my head up from my e-Handbook. I look around to those surrounding, reading, then looking up with the same expression as mine. It was clear we all felt the same emotion.

Well… all but one.

“This seems interesting…” Moca dully states. She’s standing up now, as her eyes blankly scroll over her e-Handbook. I can see the reflection in her cloudy eyes. “Very interesting…” and I swear, I can see the crack of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

“So… I guess… it’s really, really true, huh?” Kasumi sadly says. It’s weird, honestly, hearing her speak in such a melancholic tone, when throughout the whole few hours I’ve known her she’s been nothing but positive.

“This is so bullshit!” Sayo angrily storms. “To hell with these rules!”

“Careful there, twin o’ mine,” Hina smiles. “Violation of any of these rules will result in instant punishment.”

“Come on! Give Sayo a break, guys,” Hagumi says. “We need to all get along. Everyone’s been picking on her all day, and it’s not very nice.”

“I don’t need you to speak for me!” Sayo suddenly bursts. “I don’t need  _ any _ of you to speak for me, or to be nice to me, or speak to me  _ at all! _ I can care for myself, so for the rest our time in this hell, don’t talk to me!” she shouts. She makes a run for the door and, though I only catch a glimpse, I watch her flushed cheeks and leaky eyes scuttle away.

“Sayo-” Hina starts, the smallest flash of worry crossing her features. But it was too late: Sayo had already left, her athletic legs taking her far fast.

The room is silent for the next few moments. We all exchange awkward glances, unsure of what to say or do. No one dares to speak first. Some girls look on the verge of tears,  _ again. _

“I… okay,” Kasumi tries. “So, uh… that’s kinda rough… but, let’s try to regroup and figure out what to do next!” she says. Her voice is full of her same chipper once again. “Maybe we should discuss the rules? Does anyone have questions?”

“Why are  _ you  _ asking if we have questions?” Ran mutters. “It’s not like you’d be able to answer them for us, anyways…”

Kasumi furrows her brow. “I was just thinking it might be nice if we got anything we’re curious about off our chests.”

“Uh, well… I am curious a bit as to what rule four means,” Himari says.

I open my e-Handbook once again, scrolling down to rule four.

**Rule 4:**

You are free to explore  **both** schools on site with minimal restrictions.

“Oh- about the second part, right? The ‘minimal restrictions?’” I ask.

“Yeah! What’s that supposed to mean? What restrictions?”

“I’m guessing it’s supposed to mean we can’t go into locked places,” Hina says. “Since we’re not allowed to break anything, breaking a door to get into a restricted place certainly violates that rule. And there’s also obviously the ‘nighttime’ rule.”

**Rule 2:**

“Nighttime” is from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The dining hall and gymnasium are off-limits during night, so please exercise caution.

“Oh, yeah…! Speaking of that, what time is it now? There must be a clock around somewhere…”

I look around for a clock sticking out on any of the walls, but Hina’s already one step ahead of me. (And everyone else, for that matter.) “It’s 7:00,” she informs, eyes dropped down to her wrist watch. “Nighttime in three hours.”

“The time is also displayed in the top corner of our e-Handbooks,” Moca slurs. “These things are like smartphones… but weirder.”

“Much weirder,” I agree.

“Well, I think our first course of action should be to explore the schools,” Kasumi says, accompanied by a clap of her hands. “Forget about the murder thing. We should just look around for now and see if we can find any exits, or anything important relating to the situation at all. I think it would be best to split off into groups, for safety reasons. There’s already so many of us anyways, so even if we go off into larger groups we’d still be able to explore everywhere just fine.”

“I agree with that,” I say. Most others in the room voice their agreement as well, and Kasumi grins from ear to ear.

“That’s great! I think we should do groups of three! So that would be… uh…” Kasumi trails. She looks like she’s thinking a great deal, obviously struggling to do the math in her head.

“Eight groups of three,” Hina helps. “Since Sayo is absent.”

“Yes! Thank you, Hina!” Kasumi beams. “Okay, eight groups of three… yeah! So, who-”

“I’m going alone, though,” Hina says.

Kasumi looks at her like she’s just murdered her newborn child. “What?”

“I’m going to be exploring the schools alone,” Hina repeats, adding more emphasis onto the words. Similar to how she spoke to me earlier… “I’m not against what you guys are doing, go ahead, but I don’t want to be slowed down. I’m sure you understand.”

But Kasumi does not understand. Then Moca goes ahead and makes it worse by talking. “I’m going alone, too.”

Kasumi looks over to Moca with the same look. Moca just shrugs. “Why… don’t you two just go together?” Kasumi suggests. Moca furrows her brow.

“Because we just said we want to go  _ alone,  _ stupid,” she explains. Kasumi deflates.

“Hey, there’s no need to be mean!” I say. Moca looks at me with another shrug.

“Whatever. I’m leaving now.”

“Wait!” Kasumi shouts, and surprisingly, Moca stops in place.

“What?”

“Um… the last thing I want to establish is that I think we should all come back here once we’re done. You know, so we can share what we’ve discovered. Sound good?”

Moca just stares, but eventually nods and leaves the room, into Hope’s Peak. Kasumi doesn’t try to stop her again.

“Alright. Is there anyone else who wants to go alone?” she nervously asks. Her eyes dart around the room, waiting for any response. When none comes, she breathes a hopeful sigh. “Good! So, then we need…” she side-eyes Hina.

“Six groups of three. One group of four.”

Kasumi smiles gratefully. “Thank you, Hina.”

Hina nods, the smallest smile playing her lips. “No problem. I’m gonna go now, unless there’s anything else you need from me?”

Kasumi shakes her head. “I think we’re all good. All the math is figured out, so there’s nothing else.”

Hina gives another nod, and walks out the same door Moca left through. Kasumi turns to the rest of us. “Alright! So, six groups of three and one group of four, yeah? Great. I think it would be easiest to let you all find your own groups, so once you’ve found your group of three- or four -stop talking so I can know when we’re all settled. Sound good?” I nod, and the others around me nod as well and voice their noises of agreement. Kasumi smiles for the umpteenth time. “Good! Then let’s get to it!” she shouts, and turns to talk to others. Immediately, everyone else turns as well, assembling their groups as quickly as possible. Kasumi is such a natural leader…

I look around, my eyes landing on Chisato. I decide quickly that she’ll likely be a good teammate (would these even be considered teams?) and I walk to her briskly. Plus… I just like her. “Hey, Chisato!” I greet. She gently smiles.

“Aya, hi,” she says. “I was looking for you. Would you like to be in a group together?”

I aggressively nod. “Yes! I was just coming over to ask the same thing to you!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! Now, just one more person…” Chisato says.

Chisato looks around, and I look too. I see everyone coming together into their own parties, and the options are dwindling down: until I see Maya approaching us.

“Hey, Maya,” I say.

“Hey, guys: do you think I could join your group?” she asks. She sounds a little panicky, and I nod as quick as I can.

“Of course! We were just looking for a third,” I say.

Maya only smiles a grateful smile, and falls in line next to us. We stand in silence, following Kasumi’s orders. I continue to watch as everyone around me clumps together into their own parties. Talking turns to hush whispers, whispers die down into silence, and then everyone is looking at Kasumi’s group expectantly. I look around, making sure everyone got into a group, when I find Rinko standing awkwardly by herself in a corner. I’m about to go and invite her into our group, but I get beat to it when Kokoro and Hagumi sweep in to take her. She’s in for a world of hurt with that group.

There’s a loud clap at the front of the room. I whip my head over to Kasumi, and notice that the window she’s standing in front of is dark now: the long field of grass is still visible, but the stars in the sky shine bright. At the other window, it looks more or less the same, but the red sky is now a blood-red; nearly black. The smog covers the stars. The only source of light now is the random fires crackling in buildings and on streets.

“Alright! Has everyone found their group?” Kasumi asks to the room. Her eyes scan over us as she stands in front of her own group, and she waits for a response. We mostly nod, some girls saying “yes” and “yeah.” “Good! Then let’s see what we have here… first, there’s me, Yukina, Lisa, and Arisa,” she smiles, eyes flickering back to her group. Lisa provides a nice smile, but Arisa and Yukina stay stone-faced. “We already decided that we’ll explore Despair’s Descent.”

She looks over to the group to the far right. “Tae! Rimi! Saaya!” she smiles. “Will you guys explore Hope’s Peak?”

Tae gives a salute. “You got it, chief.”

She looks to the next group over. “Kaoru, Himari, Tomoe, will you guys take Despair’s Descent?”

“You can count on us!” Tomoe says with a thumbs up.

Then Kasumi looks to our group. “Aya, Chisato, and Maya. Will you guys take Hope’s Peak?”

I breathe a small sigh of relief. I feel way more comfortable exploring Hope’s Peak than I do exploring a place named ‘Despair’s Descent.’ “Definitely,” I say.

She smiles, then moves the next group over. “Misaki, Kanon, and Eve- Despair’s Descent sound good?”

“I guess…” Misaki mutters.

“Sounds great!” Eve smiles.

Kasumi looks to the fifth group. “Ako, Tsugumi, Ran? You good with Hope’s Peak?”

“Well…” Ako says, then deeply chuckles. “I would much rather deeply descend into the despair brought upon us…”

“Oh, would you like to go in Despair’s Descent?”

“No!” she shouts. Everyone stares, and she quickly clears her voice. “I mean- I’m good,” and her voice still cracks. A few girls giggle, while Kasumi smiles and moves onto the last group.

“Kokoro, Hagumi, and Rinko, will you explore Despair’s Descent?”

“Yay!” Kokoro cheers. “New places! This will be fun!”

Hagumi grabs her hands and cheers along with her. Then, they wrap their arms in a circle around Rinko, and begin jumping up and down while clumped together. Rinko doesn’t look like she’s having a very good time.

“Alright!” Kasumi claps again. “We have our groups, so let’s get to it! Everyone explore as far as you can, and come right back here as soon as you think you’ve finished. Sound good?”

Everyone nods.

“Great! And there’s just one last thing: I thought of this while we were assembling our groups. I think it would be nice if we keep our eyes on the ‘chat’ section of our e-Handbooks, so just in case one of us gets into some kind of trouble, they can text the chat and we’ll be able to know easily. Unfortunately, Sayo, Hina,  _ and  _ Moca don’t know that we’re doing this, but… does that sound alright?”

Everyone nods again. Kasumi smiles.

“Okie dokie! Let’s get to it then!” she shouts.

And with her words, everyone disperses. Chisato is suddenly walking to the door that leads into Hope’s Peak, and Maya and I quickly scramble after her. The hallway we first enter is crowded at first, other girls trying to push through to explore different places, but eventually the area thins out and we can really examine where we stand. I see a few doors on the left side of the hall, but none on the right. Chisato walks to a pair of double doors in the middle of the hallway. She reads the nameplate.

“Dining hall…” she hums. Maya and I stand to either side of her. “Shall we go in?” she asks. We vigorously nod. I know it might not be the right time, but I haven’t realized until now how  _ starving  _ I am…

We enter, and in the middle of the room stands a buffet table almost as long as Kokoro’s closet. (Okay, definitely not actually as long, but you get my point. It’s long.) There are chairs packed in beside it, as well as other, much smaller, rounder tables in the corners of the room. I can vaguely register the fact that there seems to be a door to the right that leads to a kitchen of sorts, but my mind can only focus on one thing…

Food!

The long buffet table has food packed tightly together from end to end: chicken, bread, steak, potatoes, pasta, salad, and more and  _ more. _ I can feel my mouth water, and Maya and I go ham. We race to the table, digging into the food in a not-so ladylike manner, but who cares? I feel like I haven’t eaten in years!

In the middle of scarfing down a chicken wing, Chisato’s hand falls on my shoulder. “What are you doing?”

I loudly gulp. “Eating. You want some?” I ask, holding out another chicken wing, my mouth still full despite swallowing. Chisato makes a weird face and pushes my hand away.

“No. Are you guys even thinking about what you’re doing?”

I swallowing again,  _ almost  _ getting all the food down this time. “...Eating?” I try again.

Chisato slaps some chips out of Maya’s hands, and she quietly whines. “We don’t know what this food is. It could be poisoned. Do you guys really just go anywhere and eat anything you see?”

In the back of my mind, I know she’s right. But I can’t help it: it just tastes so  _ good, _ and I’m so  _ hungry _ , and it definitely doesn’t  _ taste  _ poisoned… slowly, cautiously, I take another bite, chewing slow and thoroughly. I swallow. “...Yeees?”

Chisato huffs. “You’re unbelievable,” she says, but then she eats a chip and I feel alright again.

When we’re all done, our bellies full and hoping we don’t die of food poisoning, we go into the kitchen off the right of the dining hall. An island stands in the middle of the room. Random bowls of fruit and vegetables litter the countertop. Directly over the island hangs many pots and pans, and two lamps dangle beside them. A long counter lines the room, built in with a dishwasher, cupboards, drawers, sinks, oven and stove top… a toaster and microwave sit next to each other in one corner of the room, and a large fridge and freezer in the other. It looks like you can probably make a pretty damn good meal in here, at least if you have the right ingredients.

“Look!” Maya exclaims. “There’s a bunch more food in here! Wow~ this fridge is so big on the inside! It looks like it never ends…”

I run over to where Maya stands, and a sudden relief fills my lungs that I must let out when I see the water lining the front of the fridge. I’m a little bit kind of ridiculously thirsty, too. “Thank god,” I say, grabbing a water and drinking graciously.

Suddenly, directly to my left, I hear a loud- almost comical -sound, almost like a sword being pulled from its sheath. I look over, and there Chisato stands, right next to me, holding a knife that she’d pulled from a metal knife block. I don’t want to say that I scream, but… I make a pretty loud noise from my mouth.

Chisato, on the other hand, simply looks at me as she still holds the knife. She opens her mouth to speak, and the only riveting piece of dialogue she has to offer is: “Knife.”

I look over to Maya, who looks as concerned as I am, and I gulp. “What.”

Then, Chisato simply giggles, and she places the knife back in the block. “I don’t know. Just pointing out that there are knives here… just in case… y’know,” she says. I know what she’s implying. I don’t want to think about it, and I almost forgot about it, but suddenly it’s right there in the front of my conscious again. I have to look away from Chisato, and from the knives, because the weight of our situation is pressing down on me again and it’s a bit too much to bear.

What do we do now?

“Let’s get out of here, shall we?” Chisato softly asks. I look up and my eyes meet hers, and I can tell she’s trying to cheer me up. I simply nod, and lead us out of the dining hall. I don’t look back at Maya.

The next room we approach is the same room I woke up in. We walk in, and again I’m bombarded by the sharp array of colors, a stark contrast to the halls. I glance to the desk I woke up in. The note is still there.

“What’s this…?” Chisato asks to the room, picking up the same note I’m looking at. The question is pointed to either of us, but I feel that, somehow, it’s more directed at me. I wrinkle my nose.

“Oh, that was the note by my desk when I woke up. It’s… weird, that it’s still here…”

As I think over the contents of the note, I suddenly understand. It all makes sense now.

_ Welcome to Hope’s Peak Girls’ Academy! _

_ The new semester is about to begin. _

_ When you wake up, please find your way to the gymnasium. _

_ Enjoy your permanent new school life. _

Permanent new school life. It’s so painfully obvious now, I have to bitterly laugh. “Permanent…” I whisper to myself, which earns a strange look from Maya.

“Oh, yeah,” Chisato says as she finishes the note. “I got pretty much the same one, too. But I threw mine away once I was done with it,” she says, and side-eyes the trash can. I look over as well.  _ I am a literal idiot. _

We all search around the classroom, but there’s nothing of much interest to see. There are many desks in the classroom, a clock, a security camera and monitor, a chalkboard, and a podium of sorts for the teacher (or whoever) to stand at. However, the most interesting point is the lighting of the classroom: I didn’t notice when I first woke up, but I see now that there aren’t light bulbs or switches of any sort. Instead, the only source of light are the fairy lights lining the room at the ceiling, and the natural light from the windows during the day. There was no sunlight now, though: being night, the fairy lights are the only thing keeping the room bright, and they’re not doing a very good job at it. It’s light, but a string of tiny light bulbs can’t do much for a room. The light, though, illuminates the wall in a strange way. The wall is originally a mix of completely random colors: reds, blues, purples and greens, like some sort of strange abstract work of art. That’s what it looks like when the room is fully lit. But when there’s only the tiny light towards the ceiling, the wall almost looks like it’s moving. It almost seems as if it’s swirling into itself, like the sky outside the windows at Despair’s Descent. I swear, illuminated like this, the wall looks as if it’s glowing.  _ Sparkling. _

I place my hand on the cool surface.

Maya looks inside the trash can filled with discarded paper. “There’s not very much to see here, huh?”

“Not really,” Chisato says.

“Should we go?” I ask, prying my eyes from the wall.

They both wordlessly nod, and so we’re off walking down the hallway again. We encounter a pair of bathrooms, one for girls, and one for boys.

“Why is there a boy’s bathroom?” Maya asks. “Isn’t this an all girls school?”

“It’s for the teachers, duh,” Chisato says.

“Oh… right…”

Chisato giggles. “Let’s start with the girl’s bathroom.”

“Wait, ‘start?’” I nervously ask. “You aren’t… thinking of going in the boy’s bathroom, are you?”

Chisato turns her eyes to me. “Well, yeah. We need to explore everywhere in here, don’t we? And it’s not like there are any boys that will be in there anyways.”

I cast my eyes away. I know that’s true, but something about it still makes me uncomfortable. The boy’s restroom has always felt like an off-limits place, and even when there are no boys, I still fear that I’ll get scolded or shamed for going in. “Yeah, but…”

“If you guys are really so uncomfortable with it, I can look in there while you guys look in the girl’s,” Chisato says.

“Should we really split up, though…?” Maya asks. She looks like she’s just as nervous as me.

“Hey,” Chisato says, playfully punching us both on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be in the room right next to yours, so if anything happens, I can easily run to you guys or just scream as loud as I can. Okay?” she says. Her voice is warm, friendly, and I feel alright again. Chisato has this way that she can easily make people feel safe. “We need to be cautious, but not overly so.”

“Ah… okay. I’m fine with it,” I say, then look over to Maya. She nods.

We part ways, Chisato enters the boy’s bathroom and Maya and I enter the girl’s. The girl’s bathroom looks more or less normal: the walls are tiled pastel pink, there are three stalls, and a sink across from each stall. We check each stall, but nothing of interest is found. Just toilets.

We decide to walk out of the girl’s bathroom, then wait in the hall for Chisato to exit the other bathroom. We’re silent, unsure of what to say to one another.

“Hey…” I croak out, clearing my throat. “This might seem crazy, but do we know each other? You seem…  _ insanely _ familiar.”

Maya just stares at me for a few moments. “...No, I don’t think so… but you look really familiar to me, too.”

“Really!? That’s crazy, cause not only do you seem familiar, but so does Chisato!”

“Ah- to you, too? I’ve been thinking that this whole time.”

“Yes! But it might also be because she’s the Ultimate Actress…”

“That’s true. But then why do  _ you _ seem so familiar?”

“Yeah…” I trail off. “I don’t have an answer to that one.”

As if on cue, Chisato walks out of the boy’s bathroom. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe for her to look just a bit more uncomfortable, but she looks completely calm and natural. “There’s nothing much in there. It’s just a bathroom,” she shrugs.

“Uh- yeah, same for the girl’s,” I say. I look over to Maya and she nods, as if in confirmation. Chisato nods as well, and she suggests going further down the hall, so we carry on and no longer talk about the simple bathrooms.

Eventually, at the end of the hall, we come across a staircase blocked by bars. The stairs are white, going up and then bending around to go into an area I can’t see. I try to crane my head to see as far up as I can, but to no avail: the bars block my face from reaching out any further. I huff.

“Well… that’s interesting,” I comment out loud.

Maya steps up next to me, then grabs the bars, shaking them as hard as she can. They hardly move, only faintly rattling by her hand. “Hm,” she hums. She takes her hands away, placing one on her hip and the other under her chin, thinking. “They’re pretty sturdy. Don’t think we’d be able to get through them,” she says, punctuating her words by giving a quick rap to the bars with her knuckles.

“Even if we could,” Chisato cuts in, “that’s against the rules anyways.”

“Oh… you’re right. I forgot about that, huehue…” Maya awkwardly chuckles.

“Hey, why don’t we go down this way?” I suggest, pointing to my right. “I’m pretty sure I know what’s down there.”

“You do?” Maya asks, as Chisato is already leading the way down the hall.

“Yeah! When I was searching for Kokoro with Hagumi, we went down this hall and found her in her research lab.”

“Her… what now?”

“Oh; that’s right, you guys don’t know what that is!” I speak up, so Chisato ahead of us can hear my voice as well. “I’m not quite sure still, but from what Kokoro told me, she said that there’s one for each student, and the rooms are made for the purpose of helping us all hone in and preserve our talents. She told me she heard that from Michelle…” I glance to Maya, and she nods in what  _ seems  _ to be understanding.

“I still don’t really get it-”  _ guess not  _ “-but maybe I’ll understand better when I see her, uh, ‘research lab.’”

I nod, in actual understanding, and Maya and I catch up to Chisato already standing at the door. Chisato finds it unnecessary to wait any longer, and she pushes the door inside the studio. In front of us when we enter is Kokoro, once again in her leotard and tutu, dancing for a crowd. To the left I see her own group, with Hagumi clapping along to the beat of the song blasting and Rinko softly smiling, but to the right is Tae, Saaya, and Rimi, all looking visibly impressed. Kokoro stands (well, that’s not the right word: she’s doing everything  _ but  _ standing) in the center of the room, moving along to the music, as eight pairs of eyes watch her close. She doesn’t seem nervous at all- if anything, more  _ excited  _ that three more people have entered the room -and her movements flow entirely naturally. She does a flip, and the girls give a loud cheer.

“Hey,” Chisato pipes up. “Kokoro, aren’t you guys supposed to be exploring the other building?”

Kokoro freezes mid-move, looking like she’s been caught in a trap, and Hagumi stops her clapping as well. I look to Rinko, but she’s avoiding all eye contact.

“Well… yeah,” Kokoro says, with much less energy than she usually has, “and we did! For a little bit…”

“What happened?” Chisato persists, but she doesn’t sound angry.

“It’s scary over there!” Hagumi exclaims, her face in a pout. Kokoro nods in confirmation.

“We tried, really. I went over there with a positive attitude, expecting the best, but…” she shivers. “It’s different over there than over here. So then I suggested to Rinko and Hagumi that I show them my dancing instead, and they said yes!”

Speaking of dancing; I suddenly notice that the music has stopped. My eyes find the boombox and I see Saaya standing beside it. My eyes again find Tae and Rimi, who seem to be confused, and then I finally look to Rinko, who’s still avoiding all eye contact.

“Rinko… is this true?” Chisato asks. If I could remember my mother, I feel like Chisato would remind me of her.

Rinko’s face shrivels. “Yes… I-I’m sorry, it’s all my fault…  _ I  _ was the one who was really scared, and I asked to come to this building. They said yes and then Kokoro took us to her research lab… I’m sorry…” she said. I can hear her voice wavering and she’s still looking down. I’m about to say something, but Hagumi and Kokoro run to either side of Rinko and trap her in a tight embrace.

“Don’t say things like that!” Hagumi exclaims. “It’s okay: I’d much rather be here, watching Kokoro dance, than in that scary place!”

“Me too!” aforementioned girl says. “We were just trying to make you happy!”

Underneath the two girls, Rinko is blushing with a smile, the tears that were previously rapidly forming are now quickly drying. I smile at the sight and look to Chisato, whose gaze is soft. I wait for what she has to say.

“It’s okay. I’m not mad at you guys, I was just wondering. I figured it’s better if we evenly divide and conquer, but it really doesn’t matter. Just make sure you don’t mess around too much, okay? We need to really work together right now,” she nods. “Now, erm… Kokoro, what is this place?”

“Oh!” she beams. She jumps up and away from the other two girls, but Hagumi still sits with her arm around Rinko’s shoulders. “It’s my research lab!”

“...and that means…?”

“Well, I’m not quite sure yet… but from what I’ve seen and what Michelle has told me, it seems to be my own room to practice my talent, which is- y’know -dancing! It has all the materials I could ever need and seems to be made the way I want it: pretty cool, huh?”

“Uh-huh… and why do  _ you  _ have one?”

“Oh, I’m not the only one! Michelle told me that all the other students have one too!”

“Actually,” Tae speaks up, “we did pass by a few other research labs just earlier. I believe they were… Sayo and Eve’s…?”

At the mention of that, my consciousness is attacked with a memory of when I was walking with Hagumi. “Ohhh!” I exclaim, turning to Hagumi. “Hagumi! Do you remember how we passed by two rooms with name plates that said Sayo Hikawa and Eve Wakamiya while looking for Kokoro earlier?”

“Hm…” she ponders this for a moment, propping her left hand under her chin as her right arm still rests on Rinko. “Oh! Oh, yeah, I do!”

“Those must have been Eve and Sayo’s research labs…” I think aloud. “Eve is the Ultimate Samurai, and Sayo is the Ultimate Archer, so…” I share a look with Chisato, and we shiver.

“I can’t even imagine what’s in their rooms…”

“I’m especially curious about Eve’s room,” Maya says. “It would be cool to see some real samurai equipment!”

I look over to Kokoro and Hagumi, their eyes sparkling. “That would be totally cool!” Kokoro boasts.

“Okay, okay, yes, very cool, but I need you guys to promise me you  _ won’t  _ mess with the stuff in there, okay? Not only is it very dangerous and you don’t know how to properly handle it, but it’s not your stuff either. Okay?” Chisato says.

“Oh, yeah, definitely!” Hagumi says, but her eyes still hold the same shine as they did before.

Chisato sighs. “Rinko, will you please watch over them?” she says just loud enough so only those really listening can hear.

“I… I’ll try?”

Chisato smiles, then turns back to Maya and I. “Alright, fellas. Are you ready to continue our exploration?”

“Ready as ever!” Maya responds, and I nod my head in agreement.

When we exit Kokoro’s research lab, the other girls tell us they’re going to continue watching Kokoro dance for a bit. Chisato says that’s okay, but they shouldn’t spend too much time in there, and we leave.

“Did you notice something off about that whole situation?” Maya asks as soon as we’ve fully left the room.

The confusion is evident on my face. “Do you mean how Kokoro and Hagumi were acting? Cause, yeah, I did think that was kinda strange, but…”

“No no, I mean  _ before  _ we entered the room.”

I give her a confused look and she sighs, but it doesn’t hold anger or frustration.

“You noticed how the music was blaring when we walked inside, right?” she asks. I nod. “Did you notice how we didn’t hear the music  _ outside the room? _ I mean, with how loud it was blasting, we really should have heard it from the the outside before we walked in.”

“Oh…” I whisper. “You’re right… so, then… would that mean the rooms are soundproof?”

“I think that’s the most logical conclusion,” she says.

I walk back to the door and learn hard against it. My ear hits the wood, but I hear nothing. No talking, no laughter, no music, a void of silence by my ear. The only thing I can hear is the piercing silence to my right and the subtle movement and breaths to my left. I open the door just a crack, and an onslaught of music and cheers hit me in waves. I close the door again.

“Yeah. Definitely looks to be soundproof. Or… sounds to be soundproof,” I giggle.

Maya giggles in turn, and we both laugh together, and it feels good. It feels  _ good _ to be able to laugh and forget the situation, even if just for a second. And by a second, I really do mean a second, as only a few moments after we begin to laugh, Maya’s expression morphs into a look of concern.

“What is it, Maya?”

“Uh… where’s Chisato?”

Instinctively, I look around, seeing that Chisato is, in fact, nowhere to be found. I turn around in a 360 to check all sides around me, but no matter where I look I don’t see a single strand of blonde: just Ako, Tsumugi, and Ran walking from one room to the next.

“Chisato…?” I call out.

No response.

“Chisato!” Maya calls out, louder than me.

Still no response.

“Chisato!” I call again, louder yet. “Chisa-!”

“I’m down here!” her voice calls to my right.

I look in the direction of her words and, while Chisato isn’t there, I do finally take notice of a staircase. However, unlike the stairs we’d stumbled upon earlier, these stairs weren’t blocked by bars and went down into the ground.

“Oh!” I exclaim, and soon enough I find myself flying down the stairs on my own accord. I only vaguely register the sound of Maya’s footsteps behind me.

As soon as I take in Chisato in front of me I crack an unconscious smile, until I take in the large room we’re standing in. The walls and ceilings are all white while the floor is checkered black and white. There are no windows, instead just a countless number of doors lining the walls. No, not countless: there’s fourteen. I just counted them.

Each door has a plaque mounted next to the right, along with a mailbox standing beside it. The mailboxes intrigue me, so I attempt to open one, but to no avail. It won’t budge no matter how hard I tug and pull, so all I’m left to do is cross my arms and huff at the box. I look up from the frustrating mailbox and spot a button just underneath the plaque; one that looks like a doorbell but bigger and flatter. Hesitantly, I place my index finger up to the button… but once again, nothing happens. I attempt another tug at the mailbox which, of course, does nothing. Then, I suddenly notice the same buttons on the sides of the mailbox as is next to the door, and I push against them more confidently than I had before. I pull at the mailbox, but nothing happens again, and now I’m done even trying. I try to open the door and, to my incredible frustration, it doesn’t budge a peep. I furrow my brows and check the plaque to see who’s cursed room this is.  _ Sayo Hikawa. _

I walk away in my frustration and see Maya struggling with the same problem. “Tricky, huh?” I say.

Maya looks at me in a deadpan. “Yes. Extremely.”

I look at the plaque of the room Maya is attempting to break into, reading  _ Kasumi Toyama. _

All of a sudden, a loud blast sounds out behind me, and I look back: standing right there, in all her glory, is a disheveled Sayo Hikawa, looking quite frustrated at the blaring alarm coming from her room. She grumpily walks over to her mailbox, presses her fingers against the buttons, which opens the box and stops the alarm.

“...What the hell are you guys doing?”

“Us? What the hell are  _ we  _ doing? What the hell are  _ you  _ doing!? Why did you run away from the group like that!” I burst out, suddenly unable to control my frustration: both from the mailbox, and from Sayo’s blatantly nonchalant attitude.

“Because I can do what I want?” she says, seeming to genuinely not understand what the problem is. It only makes me more upset.

“You-”

“Okay, okay, let’s all cool it for a second,” Chisato interrupts. I want to scold her for interrupting me, but I decide against it as I realize her words are true. I pointedly cross my arms. “Sayo, what was that alarm all about?”

Sayo rolls her eyes. “I don’t really know. But apparently I found the dorms first, so Michelle popped up and decided to explain how the rooms worked. If I’m remembering correctly, she told me that this button right here,” she points to the button under the plaque, “works as both a fingerprint and a doorbell. So if you’re the owner of the room and you scan your finger- any finger, I think -it will unlock it for you, but if you’re a stranger then it’ll just ring a doorbell for the person inside. As for the mailbox,” she says, pointing to the buttons on the side, “these only work as fingerprints. Michelle told me it’s so only the owner of the mailbox can get inside, and if anyone tries to tug on it or use their own fingerprint then it’ll set off an alarm. Like what you jackasses just did,” she says with a glare directed at me.

“Uh… s-sorry about that,” I awkwardly apologize, shriveling under her piercing gaze.

She sighs. “Then there’s just one other weird thing Michelle told me… uh, I don’t know why this is, but she told me that all the bathrooms off of our rooms are, like, interconnected?”

“What does that mean?” Maya asks.

“What does it sound like it means?” Sayo harshly says, and Maya flinches. Sayo wilts. “S-Sorry. Uh, I can just show you?” she awkwardly says.

We stand there in a few moments of long silence, before Sayo realizes we’re waiting for her. She jumps, hurrying into her room, and we follow closely behind.

“So,” she says, stepping into the bathroom. The bathroom has a shower in the left corner, and toilet across from it, and a sink in the corner by the door we came in through. There’s a rack of towels mounted into the wall, and all in all it’s a very awkward set-up because of the two doors on either side of the room. “You see those doors?” Sayo asks, and I nod with a smile having just looked at them. “Well, if you were to just open, say, this one right here…” she leans over, opening the door on the right. “You have complete access to your neighbor’s bathroom, and furthermore basically their entire room. I honestly feel like it defeats the entire point of the fingerprint system,” she sighs and closes the door. “But, I suppose, if you wanted to, you  _ do  _ have the option to just…” she twists the lock in the doorknob, “lock it.”

“Jeez… why would they do that?” Maya asks.

“My guess?” Sayo asks. “I’d say to make it easier for us to kill each other. Word of advice, ladies; make sure you lock your doors at night. Or, better yet, keep them locked at all times. Be cautious when you use the bathroom. Now… could you get out? I want to be alone for a bit.”

So, just like that, Sayo kicks us out to hide away in her room for the rest of the night. We’re left outside to ponder her words in the newfound gloomy atmosphere.

“...Hey,” Chisato gently speaks in the midst of the melancholy. “Maybe we should move on for now? Time is passing quick, and we can explore our own rooms later at nighttime. Does that sound okay?” she smiles.

I smile back with a curt nod, and Maya does the same. I must admit, I am quite grateful for Chisato’s calm and collected demeanor: without her to anchor me, I’d probably be having a breakdown by now. I take a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth, and we continue together as a group back up the stairs.

We walk back through the hall past Kokoro’s research lab, but instead of turning left we continue straight down new yet familiar terrain. We do turn a right when we reach a bend in the hallway, and the first door we see is the familiar carvings of Eve’s research lab.

“Eve’s lab, huh…?” Chisato says, inspecting the nameplate.

“Oh~ cool! Looks all… samurai-y,” Maya says. Chisato deadpans.

“Well, might as well just head on in, right?” I offer, and Maya and Chisato nod. I reach out for the knob and lead the way inside.

Eve’s research lab is  _ very large _ . The room extends far away from the door, and the wall is lined with a seemingly endless array of swords and other weapons. Towards the farthest right corner seems to be an area for training. I walk into the room so I’m able to better see, and I notice that the training area goes into the wall a tad with a few metal dummies lying randomly on the floor. On the back wall behind the dummies hangs some more swords. The wall to the right of the training area goes out a bit and has traditional shoji sliding doors to get into a side room. The floors are made of tatami mats. Overall, the space looks like some kind of dojo, but with a lot more items filling up the room.

“Wow~! This place is amazing!” Maya says, poking and prodding the dummies on the ground. “These dummies are amazing… the limbs all seem to be attached by magnets,” she continues, pulling harshly at one of the arms. She tries to detach it, but she only manages to budge the arm out of it socket about one millimeter before she lets go and it snaps back in place again. She huffs. “But they’re really strong.”

Chisato walks over and opens the sliding doors, revealing a room full with stands of samurai armor.

“Ohh, these are so cool!” I marvel, closely admiring the shining armor.

My amazement is short-lived, however, as I suddenly I hear a loud beep to the left of me, and Maya screams at the top of her lungs.

“What? What’s the matter!?” I frantically ask, but as soon as I look over I understand what the problem is.

One of the dummies she’d been previously toying with has suddenly become animated, and it looms over Maya. It begins to reach for a nearby sword, and I panic. Before I’m even aware of what I’m doing, I’m grabbing for Maya and Chisato and dragging them out through the door, the dummy right on our heels. It lunges at us with it’s sword, but I manage to slam the door hard on its face before it’s able to slice us to bits.

I hold onto the doorknob in case it tries to go out through the door, but I don’t feel the knob attempt to turn: maybe it’s not intelligent enough to understand something as simple as that?

Hesitantly, I let the door go, and slowly turn to face the other girls. “Maya... what happened?”

“Erm…” she starts, pauses, still looking quite shaken up. I wait until she composes herself. She seems to still be trying to understand herself what had happened. “Well, so… y’know, I was just, like. Messing around with it, because it was fascinating and I wanted to understand what was up with it. I found this button, like, on the side of its head, and I guess I thought it would be a good idea to press it, and then it started moving like a robot, which it must be, and… you saw the rest,” Maya sighs. Then she looks off in thought, saying things that I’m not sure we’re meant to hear, and rubbing her chin. “I’m guessing it  _ is _ some kind of robot designed for training purposes, which explains why it grabbed the sword, but how does it work? What are the limits of its intelligence? Ah, I have so many questions that are unable to be answered!” she huffs, crossing her arms in childlike frustration.

Chisato and I have no idea what to say, so instead Chisato looks to me and raps her knuckles on the door. “So, what are we gonna do about this little situation here?” she asks.

I ponder this for a moment. We obviously can’t go back in the room at the risk of being decapitated, but we also can’t do nothing at the risk of  _ someone else  _ going in and being decapitated. It would be best to be able to tell everyone to not enter her talent room, but trying to go around and tell each group would be way too difficult and ineffective. If only there was a way to communicate to them all at once… I ponder my choices, and an idea suddenly pops to mind.  _ What if I… _

I swiftly pull my e-Handbook from my pocket, and Chisato gives me a quizzical as Maya continues to be lost in her own thoughts. “What are you doing?”

I don’t respond, but instead go to the tab labeled  _ CHAT _ . I type out a message that I hope will reach all the girls:  _ Hey, everybody. This is Aya. So Maya, Chisato, and I had a little problem in one of the Hope’s Peak rooms, Eve’s research lab. No big deal, but you probably shouldn’t go in there unless you wanna get sliced to bits by a blood-thirsty dummy. Ahahah, I can explain later… just don’t go into Eve’s research lab for now. _

I send the message, and immediately I hear a buzz and a ding from the direction of Maya and Chisato. Maya fishes her handbook from her backpack and Chisato from her skirt,  _ and Chisato’s skirt has pockets?  _ That’s just about the coolest thing ever, and I’m suddenly envious of her style.

Chisato chuckles. “Blunt, but gets the point across. So then,” she slips her handbook back in her pocket, then claps her hands together. “Now that we have that problem taken care of, shall we move on?”

I nod, and look to Maya: her handbook is back in her bag, and she’s present in the conversation again. She nods as well.

We wordlessly move on again, and soon enough we reach a wide opening and a large pair of double doors. The double doors seem to be an exit to the school…! I frantically run over and push them with all my might, but to no avail. They don’t even budge an inch. I frown as disappointment floods my veins.

I look behind me again, and the hallway widens out into some sort of entrance. A fountain flows in the middle of the room, two fake plants stand in the corners, and four chairs line each of the three walls. Honestly, it’s quite the picturesque setting, yet something about it still seems… off. However, I don’t think anything in this horrible place will ever seem right.

“Weird… those plants are completely white,” Chisato says, and I only just now notice how right she is. That’s what’s so off! The absence of color in these halls always throws me for a loop…

“Are they painted…?” I ask, wondering if that’s a stupid question or not.

But Chisato walks over and peers at one of the plants for a hot second, then shakes her head for  _ no, they’re obviously not painted, stupid. _

...I’m sure all she means is ‘no,’ but my mind can’t help but make me feel stupid.

We decide to continue on, and we soon stumble upon Sayo’s research lab.

“Sayo’s the Ultimate Archer, right?” Maya asks, and Chisato nods for me.

“Her lab is probably pretty similar to Eve’s, I’d imagine. Let’s just hope there’s no dummies, and if there is…” I glance over to Maya for a second, then look away and chuckle. “Let’s try not to accidentally activate them.”

“Hey! That’s totally not fair! I didn’t mean to do it on purpose!” Maya defends herself.

“Hence the world ‘accidentally,’” I tease.

Maya just huffs with a cross of her arms, and we all revel in a sweet, genuine moment of laughter. I put my hand on the knob and look between Chisato and Maya. With a reassuring nod from them both, I open the door into Sayo’s lab.

Sayo’s lab is not very much like Eve’s lab. Similar in contents,  _ maybe,  _ but not so much in design. Sayo’s lab is very long, almost as large as the gym, and at the end of the room is a line of targets in three rows. On the right wall of the room is a large array of bows hanging from the wall, some with very distinct changes from one another and others with only the smallest differences. Then on the left wall is an even larger array of arrows, the same as the bows regarding their differences. I think it’s a bit stupid that there’s only one arrow for each different type, but then I see Maya pressing a button near one of the arrows, and I begin to cautiously look around for what that button could have possibly done.

I hear a beep from somewhere across the room, and then a circular panel ejects itself up from the ground. Arrows are packed in a circle all around the compartment in rows. I marvel at the little gadget, but it’s suddenly lowering itself back into the floor before I can inspect it further.

“What the heck?” I ask, looking to Maya.

“Hmm… okay, I’m going to press another button. Both of you watch the ground and tell me if you see anything,” she firmly says.

Confused, I look to Chisato in worry, but all she does is give a nod to Maya. So I obviously have to give a nod as well.

Maya presses a button next to another arrow, and my eyes begin to scan the floor, still unsure of what I’m actually supposed to be looking for. I hear the beep again, the familiar beep heard both in Eve’s room and just a second ago here, and my eyes try to dart in the direction where I feel the sound came from. I see a circle towards the right corner momentarily light up green, then another panel rises from the floor.

I look at the specific arrows lined in the compartment of the panel, then look back to the button of the arrow Maya pushed. They’re the same model.

“Oh, I get it!” I say.

“Yeah?” Maya questions.

“Yeah! It seems that whichever button you push corresponds to the arrow right next to it, and then a panel full of that model rises from the floor. Before it came up, I saw the panel light up green for a second!” I say. I inspect the floor closer, and realize how clearly I can see the circles where each compartment is stored.

“I think you’re right,” Maya smiles then hits the same button again, which lowers the panel. “I was wondering why there was only one arrow for each model, but then I saw the buttons, and… well, I can’t really keep my hands to myself,” she giggles.

I smile. “That’s alright. Being curious is good in this situation, but also with a good balance of cautiousness.”

She blushes with a sheepish grin. “Right,” she nods, then continues on over to inspect the targets.

“You know, there’s some switches n’ stuff here. It looks like you can set a number on these monitors…” she mumbles.

“Set the bottom row to three,” Chisato suggests.

I raise a brow. “Why three?”

She shrugs. “Lucky number?”

Maya sets the number for the bottom row to three. Then, flipping a switch, the targets begin to move down the row, disappearing into the side of the wall. As targets disappear to the left, new ones take their place on the right.

Maya decides to flip another switch near the row, and the targets stop moving left and start moving right.

“Set it to five,” Chisato says.

Maya just nods, doing as told. After being set to five, the targets begin to move faster than before.

“Oh!” Maya exclaims. “Okay, that must be the speed setting for the targets. This,” she flips one of the switches back and it moves the opposite direction again, “must be to change the direction the targets move. Then this one,” she flips the last switch back and the targets stop moving, “must be to stop and start the targets. That’s so cool!” Maya says with a giggle.

“Certainly perfect for the Ultimate Archer,” Chisato says.

“Ah, I hope my room is as cool and techy as Eve and Sayo’s!” Maya squeals. 

“Oh Maya, you’re so adorable!” I say, and I can’t help but squeeze her cheeks.

“Huuh!?”

“Aya, I could say the same for you!” Chisato then pipes in, squeezing my cheeks in turn.

“Huuuh!? Ch-Chisato, stop-!”

We continue squeezing each others cheeks and giggling for a good while before another group walks in to awkwardly split us up, so we decide it’s time to move on to the next room.

The next room, the very  _ last  _ room to explore in Hope’s Peak, is the gym. When I walk in, I’m expecting to see the same chaos and carnage as was there when I’d last left, but to my complete and utter surprise…

There’s nothing there.

No glass, no smoke, no live wire- no nothing. The gym looks exactly as it had when I saw it for the first time, as if not a single thing in the world had happened. A flood of shock washes over my body. I look to Chisato, and I can tell by her pale face and wide eyes that she feels the same.

“Ah, this gym is so nice,” Maya says, unfazed by its normal appearance, and walks further into the gym.

Chisato and I stand in place.

I look beyond Maya ahead of us, and I finally notice the other group present: Tae, Saaya, and Rimi. They all seem to be confused as well, as they inspect the ground and the area surrounding, searching for any possible evidence of the previously demolished monitor.

I walk to Tae with a ghostly face. “Hey.”

“Oh- Aya, hey,” she greets, with feigned enthusiasm.

“What the hell happened to the monitor!?” I say, feeling the need to whisper for some reason.

“Dude, I have no idea. We were just trying to figure that out ourselves,” she whispers back.

I grumble, and look to the ground. The stupid, shiny,  _ perfect  _ floor reflecting my stupid, conflicted, imperfect expression. That was real, right? I couldn’t have just made it up: the pain and emotion in that moment is something so raw and  _ real _ , I could never possibly forget. Or make it up, since I’m not nearly that creative. But, if it was a real event that really, truly happened, why does it look like nothing did? Michelle couldn’t have possibly cleaned it up that well that fast.

My thoughts are suddenly in an unbearable battle against one another, and it’s so overwhelming that I begin to feel the familiar prick of tears, like the crybaby that I am. And the fact that this is getting to me so much for no reason makes me feel even worse, making the tears come faster.

“Aya, the-” Maya starts, putting her hand on my shoulder, but stops. “...Are you okay?”

I look to her with glossy eyes. “What is happening…?”

The shudders and hics release from my body.

“Oh god, Aya-” Maya says, and she wraps me in a large hug. I cry into her shoulder.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Chisato asks as soon as she reaches us. I feel her hand on my shoulder.

I turn my head to face her, but still rest against Maya. “I don’t know. What  _ did _ happen? Why is it gone? Am I going crazy? I feel like I’m going crazy. Everything is so messed up!” I exclaim, giving a large sob I don’t even have the willpower to feel embarrassed of. “I feel like everything is falling apart and I don’t know what to do.”

“Aya,” Saaya says, “are you alright? Are you having a panic attack?”

“I-” I start, but cut myself off, and I’m suddenly aware of every sensation I feel: my shaking, the blood rushing, my heart pumping, the difficulty to breathe, the deafening silence- everything swirls together to feel like nothing at all. I feel all of everything and none of nothing both in the same time. “I don’t know.”

“Okay, um,” Saaya says, trying to take control of the situation. “You guys should just get her out of here. Take her anywhere, just not here: this place seems to be a bad trigger for her. Just take her and try to calm her down.”

Chisato and Maya nod- at least I think they did -and remove me from the gym, but all I’m suddenly thinking about is how much Saaya reminds me of a mother.

“Aya, do we need to take you to your dorm room?” Maya sheepishly asks.

“No!” I blurt out. “No, no. We need to go to the hallway because... because we need to share what we found. I…” it’s hard to think of words, when you feel like you’re losing your mind. “I can’t give up.”

“Aya… are you sure?” Chisato asks. I duly note that this is the first time I’ve seen Chisato appear to be nervous.

I give a thumbs up with a shaky hand. “Absolutely.”

And so we went.

* * *

By the time everyone had assembled in the hall once again, my episode had passed. Maya asked what happened in the gym before and I explained to her about the monitor, and she said she believed me. Chisato also said that she, too, vividly remembers the monitor crashing to the ground, so I’m not the only one confused. Saaya, Tae, and Rimi asked how I was doing when they walked in, and that made me feel better, too.

Surprisingly, everyone has actually shown up for the meeting; excluding Sayo. Even Hina and, even more surprisingly, Moca are here. I never saw either of them once during our search, so I’m quite curious to hear what they have to say.

“Hey hey, alright everybody!” Kasumi spoke up loud and clear, and stood at the front of the room. “I hope you guys all conducted good and thorough searches, because now it’s time to share! Please share everything you can, because we need as much information as we can get on our current situation!”

“Ohh yay, I love share and tell~” Moca drones. I see Arisa cast her a mild glare.

“Ahem, um. So, let’s not waste anymore time than is necessary. Nighttime starts in about half an hour and I’m sure you’re all tired! So let’s get this show on the road, starting with: Me, Arisa, Yukina, and Lisa!”   
“Well… the thing we focused on most was how we could potentially get out of here,” Lisa shares. “But we checked  _ everywhere _ , yet still found no exits or anything. At least, not in Despair’s Descent. None of the windows open, and we found a main entrance but the doors were locked,” she sighs. “We kinda tried to break the windows, but they’re really sturdy. Definitely no way to get through those babies.”

“We found the same thing over at Hope’s Peak,” Ran says. “Exact same thing.”

“We found out the rooms are soundproof!” Kokoro says. “I was playing music really loud in my research lab, and after Hagumi left to go to the bathroom, she told me she couldn’t hear the music at all from the outside!”

“Oh, yeah, speaking of research labs: those places are… interesting, huh?” Misaki says.

“I’ll bet. There’s about three of those rooms in Hope’s Peak,” Tae says.

“There was three in Despair’s Descent, too.”

“One of them in Despair’s Descent was mine,” Tomoe informed.

“Oh, I saw that…” Moca mumbles. “It was soo cool. With all the guns and knives, it was real neat~”

Guns? Knives…? I remember that Tomoe is the Ultimate Soldier, but isn’t all that a little extreme? Doesn’t that just make it easier to kill each other!?

“Yeah… I guess. But I discovered that we’re not allowed to take equipment out of our research labs after trying to take a knife out of there. N-Not for any suspicious reasons!” Tomoe hastily defends herself, which only makes her sound more suspicious. “I just thought I could take one for, like, self-defense… but when I tried to, Monokuma came out of nowhere and told me that I couldn’t do that. He even went out of his way to make a whole new rule in the handbook.”

I quickly dig my handbook out of my pocket, and sure enough, there it is: clearly written out in black and white.

**Rule 14:**

Students are not allowed to take any items out of the research labs.

“Another one of the rooms in Despair’s Descent was mine!” Himari says. “It was so adorable, there was candy littered everywhere and all the perfect machines and ingredients to make my own candy! It was all pastel and cute~”

“The last room in Despair’s Descent was Ako’s,” Hina says. “It-”

“What? Seriously!? Aw, I’m so upset I didn’t get to see it!” Ako pouts.

“Yes… a shame. It has a very large screen at the end of the room, and just about every console and video game title you can imagine. Seriously. Every shelf is lined top-to-bottom, side-to-side with video games, and towards the screen is an unbelievable amount of consoles and handhelds. There’s also a few gaming type chairs or something, and the room is… really dark. I don’t think it has any lights besides that of the screen.”

“Oh my gosh. That seriously sounds like my dream come true!”

“I also have a research lab!” Kokoro exclaims, seemingly unable to control her excitement. “It’s sooo cool! It’s really big and I can dance, dance, dance as much as I want! It also has a side closet full of performance outfits and training gear, and it’s everything I could ever ask for!”

“Sayo has a research lab in Hope’s Peak!” Hagumi says. “She’s not here… so I thought I could let you know. Um, it’s pretty cool, I think? It has a lot of archery stuff. It’s very techy!”

“And, uh… there’s Eve’s lab, which… we were all told not to go into?” Ran said with a glance in our direction.  _ Oh yeah. _ Ran clears her throat. “Um… Aya? Could we get an explanation?”

I nervously glance at all the eyes staring into me, and I shakily take a deep breath. I’m not really the best at public speaking, but I try to get my shaking under control and man up.

“Well… okay, so… in Eve’s lab, there are these dummies there for training or whatever. Except they were made out of metal and, apparently, are robots. They all have a button on the side of their heads, and Maya pushed one out of curiosity and… it, like, came to life, grabbed a sword, and tried to kill us. Luckily, we ran out of there before it could get to us, but it was really close. So, um…” I had been unconsciously looking at the floor, but I look up to see confused and skeptical eyes peering at me. I begin to sweat. “Yeah.”

“Oh… okay,” Ran says, seeming to not believe what she’s heard. “Um… Eve, would you mind taking care of that at some point?”

“You can count on me! In the spirit of Bushido, I won’t let any of those dummies get to you!”

“Ah… okay, great.”

“Then what else is there, in terms of rooms?”

“Well, in Hope’s Peak there’s the research labs- obviously -but there was also a classroom, dining hall, bathrooms, a gym, and dorm rooms…” Saaya lists off.

“Wait, you guys have a dining hall!?” Himari asks, envy clear in her voice.

“You guys don’t!?”

“No! We have an inventory with food in it, but no kitchen or dining hall!”

“Ah, so Hope’s Peak and Despair’s Descent aren’t the same, after all…” Yukina, surprisingly, speaks up. “I was wondering if the two buildings had the same basic design, just flipped, but it seems that there’s at least one room that differs between the two.”

“Does that mean that Despair’s Descent has the same other rooms as Hope’s Peak?”

Yukina nods.

“Is there anything else worthy of noting that you guys noticed?” Kasumi asks.

“Um… the dormitories! I don’t know if it’s the same in both schools, but they have fingerprint locks.”

“There’s also mailboxes that you can only access through fingerprints.”

“Yeah… we discovered the hard way that when you try to break into somebody else’s mailbox, a loud alarm sounds out; but only in the owner’s room.”

“And the bathrooms off of each dorm room are connected, for some reason.”

A bunch of girls speak one after the other, establishing as many facts and details about the schools as possible. It seems that Hope’s Peak and Despair’s Descent are basically the same, except for the simple difference of the dining hall vs. the inventory.

“Alright!” Kasumi claps her hands together. “So… is there anything else to share? At all?”

The room goes silent. I scan the room from left to right, watching the actions of each girl. My eyes briefly brush over Moca, who looks like she’s smugly hiding something, then I stop at Hina. She looks like she’s debating whether or not to say something. She’s staring at the floor, brow furrowed, cheeks puffed out. She opens her mouth slowly to speak, but she’s interrupted by the static that’s suddenly sounding from the screen behind her.

“Mm, ahem, this is a school announcement. It is now 10 p.m.,” the sickening voice from the screen announces. I look to the screen, and there he is: the one and only Monokuma, in all his glory. I haven’t even met him in person, but I already dread him more than Michelle. I notice, though, that there are two screens on each wall, and that one screen on the wall shows Monokuma, while the other shows Michelle. Michelle’s screens are mounted onto the Hope’s Peak side, while Monokuma’s are on Despair’s Descent. They both seem to be speaking the same words at the same time, which is creepy in ways I can’t even understand.

“As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and gymnasium will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then… sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite…”

The screens turn off once again, the voice of both Michelle and Monokuma bouncing off the wall for a split second. A silence falls over the room. I look back to Hina, but she no longer has the contemplative look on her face. Unfortunately, it looks as if she took the nighttime warning as a sign to not speak.

The silence is short lived as Kasumi claps her hands together one last time. “Alright everybody, nighttime! We should all go our separate ways now, and make sure we get a good night’s sleep! At least we know there’s nothing dangerous lying around, so we can feel more confident in walking by ourselves.”

“Nothing lying around but each other,” Moca says.

We all give Moca a wary look. Kasumi clears her throat. “Uh… let’s go to our rooms now.”

We disperse, going in different directions to wherever our dormitories lie. It’s a bit sad seeing Maya walk away, but I give her a wave and a smile as we part, knowing that I’ll see her again tomorrow. I just wish it could’ve been under better circumstances…

Still a bit shaken up from my panic attack, I walk briskly down the halls. Fatigue riddles my bones and I’m absolutely  _ thrilled  _ to be able to rest.

Walking into the dormitories, it takes me a second to find my room, realizing I’d never found it before. I find it in the right corner, all alone.  _ That’s great. _ I experimentally push my finger to the reader. Nothing visibly happens, but when I turn the knob I’m relieved to find that it’s unlocked.

“Goodnight, Aya,” a sweet voice says next to me. I look over: Chisato. I’m glad to know that her room is right next to mine.

I smile and nod. “Thank you. Goodnight to you too, Chisato.”

We enter our respective rooms, and I’m suddenly viciously hit with the feeling of loneliness. I sigh a sad, shaky sigh, and inspect my room. It looks mostly normal, but with more colors, which almost hurts my eyes for a moment. The walls and bedspread have the same pattern: a gentle pink with designs of little hearts. It would be almost cute, if I weren’t trapped in this hellhole with 24 other students.

My eyes lift to the bathroom. I go in and lock the door as fast as possible.

It’s not that I don’t trust Chisato; I trust her immensely, but I’m not so sure about the others quite left…

Especially Sayo.

I hate to say it, but I’m not sure if I trust her.

I flip the switch and the lights go out, then I crawl under the covers and curl up. I don’t bother getting out of my day clothes. I don’t know if there are even any pajamas here, and I’m too exhausted to care.

Exhausted, but haunted. Too haunted to sleep, as I lay in this foreign bed and thoughts swirl around my brain.

As tears begin to prickle my eyes, I think about how long of a night this is going to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! I'm crossing my fingers that updates will come out faster...
> 
> If you'd like to see Bangronpa updates and extra content, make sure to check out my social medias dedicated to it!  
> Instagram: @bangronpa  
> Twitter: @bangronpa (haven't really been active as of yet tho)


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